LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 5 



»|hap |op8"SW |V 



| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






^, *?/(?. 



/ 



PICTURES AND STORIES OE ANIMALS 



THE LITTLE ONES AT HOME. 



Mrs. SANBORN TENN.EY. 



INSECTS, CRUSTACEANS, AND WORMS. 

WITH ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FOUR WOOD ENGRAVINGS. 



y> 







u 



NEW YORK 






SHELDON AND COMPANY, 

498 and 500 Broadway. 

1868. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by 

ABBY A. TENNEY, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. 



PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS 

FOR THE LITTLE OlSTES AT HOME 

By Mes. Sanboen Tenxey. 

In Six Volumes. Each Volume complete in itself. Containing 500 

Wood Engravings. 

QUADRUPEDS. 

BIRDS. 

FISHES AND REPTILES. 

BEES, BUTTERFLIES, AND OTHER INSECTS. 

SEA SHELLS AND RIVER SHELLS. 

SEA-URCHINS, STAR-FISHES, AND CORALS 




PREFACE 



Believing that there is nothing in which chil- 
dren are naturally more interested than they are in 
animals, and that there are no other objects which 
can be used to greater advantage than these in their 
instruction, the writer has prepared these Pictures 
and Stories of Animals for the Little Ones, to in- 
struct as well as to interest and amuse them. 

There are six books in the series, each one com- 
plete in itself; and they are so arranged that to- 
gether they make a Juvenile Library of the Natural 
History of Animals. 

The first book contains pictures and stories of 
Mammals or Quadrupeds ; the second book, pictures 
and stories of Birds ; the third, of Reptiles and 
Fishes; the fourth, of Bees, Butterflies, and other 



VI PREFACE. 

Insects, and of Crustaceans and Worms ; the fifth, 
of Shells, and the animals which live in them ; and 
the sixth, of Sea-Cucumbers, Sea-Urchins, Star- 
Fishes, Jelly-Fishes, Sea-Anemones, and Corals. 

The wood engravings in the six books are more 
than five hundred in number, and are true to na- 
ture. Several of them were drawn and engraved 
expressly for. this series ; the others are mainly 
from Tenney's " Manual of Zoology," " Natural 
History of Animals," and other works of Tenney's 
Natural History Series. 

August, 1868. 





CONTENTS. 



First Ideas about Insects 

The Bees, Wasps, &c, or Hymenopters. 
The Honey-Bees — Humble-Bees — Carpenter-Bee — Tailor- 
Bee — Mason-Bee — Paper-making Wasps — Mud- Wasps 

— Ichneumons — Gail-Flies — Boring Saw-Fly — Saw- 
Flies 

The Scaly-winged Insects, or Lepidopters. 

The Asterias Butterfly — Turnus Butterfly — White Butter- 
fly — Yellow Butterfly — Misippus Butterfly — Mountain 
Butterfly — Skippers — Moths — Five-spotted Sphinx — 
Humming-bird Moth, or Clear-winged Sesia — Peach- 
tree Borer — Beautiful Deiopeia — Salt-marsh, or Beach 
Moth — Silk-worm — American Silk-worm, or Polyphe- 
mus Moth — Luna Moth — Cecropia Moth — Promethea 
Moth — Tent-caterpillar Moth — Span-worms — Canker- 
worms — Leaf-rollers — Clothes Moths .... 

The Two-winged Insects, or Dipters. 

The Mosquitoes — Wheat-Fly — Hessian-Fly — Crane-Flies 

— Black-Flies — House-Flies — Horse-Flies — Bot-Flies 

— Bee-Flies — Asilus-Flies ....... 

The Sheath-winged Insects, or Beetles, or Coleopters. 

The Tiger-Beetles — Caterpillar-Hunter — Water Beetle — 
Carrion Beetle — Rove Beetle — Horn-Bug, or Stag 



Page 
9-14 



14-3 



37-70 



70-76 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

Beetle — Goldsmith Beetle — Dor-Bug — Phaneus — 
Buprestis — Spring-Beetles, or Snap-Beetles — Fire-Flies 
— Curculios, or Weevils — Painted Clytus — Beautiful 
Clytus — Apple-tree Borer — Broad-necked Prionus — 
Chrysomelan — Cucumber Beetle — Lady-Bird . . 77-92 

The Cicadas, &c, or Hemipters. 
The Dog-day Cicada, or Harvest Fly — Seventeen-year 
Cicada — Tree-Hoppers — Plant-Lice — Scorpion-Bug — 
Squash-Bug 92-98 

The Straight-winged Insects, or Orthopters. 

The Earwig — Cockroach — Walking-Stick — Mantis — 
Crickets — House-Cricket — White Climbing-Cricket — 
Mole Cricket — Katy-did — Grasshoppers — Locusts . 98 - 108 

The Nerve-winged Insects, or Neuropters. 

The May-Fly — Stone-Fly — Dragon-Fly — Horned Cory- 
dalis — Ant-Lion — Caddice-Fly 108-116 

The Spiders and Scorpions . . . . . . 116-123 

The Centipedes . . 124-126 

The Crabs, Lobsters, and Shrimps .... 126-135 

The Sand-hoppers and Trilobites 135-138 

The Barnacles and Horse-shoe Crab . . . 138-142 

The Worms 143-150 

Concluding Words 150 





PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

Dear Children: — 

In this little book you will find pictures and 
stories of the Honey-Bee, of the Wasp and the 
curious nest it makes for its young ones, of the 
beautiful Butterflies which hover over the flowers 
in the daytime, and of the not less beautiful Moths 
which come out of their hiding-places and fly 
about at night, of Flies, Beetles, Cicadas, Grass- 
hoppers, and Dragon-Flies, and of many other 
Insects ; and of the Crabs, Lobsters, and Shrimps 
which live in the sea ; and of the Worms, some kinds 
of which live in the sea and some upon the land. 

The number of kinds of insects is very great, 
even hundreds of thousands. 



10 



PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 



Some kinds of insects have four thin wings, 
the hind pair being the smaller; two pairs of 




A Bee, — an Hymenopter. 

jaws, the upper pair for biting, and the lower for 
getting honey ; and a sting or some other piercing 
organ. They are called the Hymenopters, or 
Membrane-winged Insects. Such are the Bees, 
Wasps, Ants, and Ichneumons. 

Some kinds of insects have four wings, which 




A Butterfly, — a Lepidopter. 



FIRST IDEAS ABOUT INSECTS. 11 

are covered with minute scales that rub off when 
we touch them. These insects have a long tongue, 
which, when not in use, is coiled up beneath the 
head. They are called the Lepidopters, or Scaly- 
winged Insects. Such are the Butterflies and 
Moths. 

Some kinds of insects, as Flies and Mosquitos, 
have only two wings ; but in the place of hind 




A Fly, — a Dipter. 

wings they have two knobbed threads, or bal- 
ancers, and they are called the Dipters, or Two- 
winged Insects. 

Some kinds of insects have their forward or 
upper wings hard, and these wings meet in a 
straight line along the back, and they have the 



12 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

hind or under wings thin, and when they are 
not flying, these wings are folded and hidden 




A Beetle, — a Coleopter. 

beneath the hard and horn-like upper wings. Such 
Insects are called the Coleopters, or Beetles. They 
generally have a little triangular piece between 
the bases of the wings, as you see it in the picture. 
Some kinds of insects, as the Cicadas, have a 




A Cicada, — an Homipter. 



FIRST IDEAS ABOUT INSECTS. 13 

slender, horny beak, which, when not in use, is 
bent back under the body ; and some kinds also 
have their wings thick near the body, and thin to- 
ward the end. These insects are called Hemipters. 




A Grasshopper, — an Orthopter. 

Some kinds of insects, as the Grasshoppers, 
have wings which lie straight along the top or 
sides of the back, and they are called the Straight- 
winged Insects, or Orthopters. 

Some kinds of insects, as Dragon-Flies, have 
very large eyes, very large netted-veined wings, and 



14 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 




A Dragon-Fly, — a Neuropter. 

a long body. They are called Nerve-winged In- 
sects, or Neuropters ; and here is a picture of one 
of them. 



THE BEES, WASPS, &c, or HYMENOPTERS. 

The first story that I am going to tell you, is 
about the busy little Bees, — the honey-makers. 
They live together in very large numbers. In 
a single hive there are many thousands of these 
little creatures, and in every hive there are three 
kinds, the Queen, the Drones, and the Workers. 
Here are pictures of them. The Queen is the 



THE HONEY-BEE. 15 

largest, — although her picture is no larger than 
that of the Drone, — and there is only one in each 




The Queen. The Worker. The Drone. 

hive. She is the mother; she lays all the eggs, 
and does not often fly out into the sunshine, but 
stays in the hive, and is fed and waited upon by 
the Workers. There are only a few Drones or 
males in each hive ; they have no sting, and they 
do no work, and they do not often fly out of the 
hive. The Workers are the smallest; they make 
the comb, and fill it with honey which they gather 
from the flowers ; they feed and take care of the 
young bees ; they wait upon the Queen ; they do 
all the work and are busy from morning till 
night. 

The honeycomb is made of wax ; you have often 
seen it, and you remember that it is made up of lit- 



16 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

tie cells, all shaped alike, each one having six 
sides ; and the honey-cells are all of the same 
size, whether made by the honey-bees that live in 
our country, or by those that live in countries 
thousands of miles away, and whether made by the 
tame bees that live in hives, or by the wild bees 
that live in the forests, and have their nest and build 
their comb in hollow trees, or in holes and crevices 
among the rocks. The bottom of the cell is made 
of three " diamond " shaped pieces, and it is deep- 
est in the centre, and is much stronger than if it 
were flat and made of only one piece. The bees 
begin at the top of the hive to make the comb, 
and build downward, each comb having two rows 
of cells, one tier or row of cells being open towards 
one side of the hive, the other tier or row of the 
same comb being open towards the opposite side 
of the hive. When the bees have filled the honey- 
cells they close the top with wax, and the honey 
is thus kept from the air, and it remains pure and 
sweet. 

But you will like to know more about the wax, 
for it is a very wonderful substance, and the way 
in which it is formed is very curious. On the 



THE HONEY-BEE. 17 

under side of the hind body of the bee are six little 
flaps, or pockets, and under these flaps the wax 
is secreted, in tiny scales ; and, in order to pro- 
duce it, the bees must have plenty of food, and 
then they must keep warm and quiet for about 
a day ; so the little wax-makers first eat all the 
honey or sugar they need, and then they arrange 
themselves in the form of festoons and curtains, 
* — by clinging one to another with the claws 
of their feet, while the first and last bees at- 
tach themselves to some part of the hive or 
comb, — and in this way they hang until the 
wax is secreted, and then they go to that part 
of the comb where wax is needed, and by 
means of the pincers of their legs they remove 
the little scales of wax, and mould and work them 
over with the head and tongue, softening them 
with a frothy liquid from the mouth. The wax 
is formed so slowly that it is a very precious sub- 
stance, and it is a very curious fact that the shape 
of the bee's cell is such as to use as little as pos- 
sible, and still have the cells and comb firm and* 
strong. Although when warm the wax is soft 
and can be moulded and spread into any form, 



18 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

when cold it is hard and firm enough to bear 
the weight of the young bees and the honey ; and 
the texture of this wonderful substance is so close 
that, although the walls of the cells are very thin 
and delicate, not a particle of honey can soak 
through them. 

After the wax has served its purpose for the 
bee, it is useful to man in many ways. It is made 
into beautiful candles for lighting churches and 
dwellings ; the thread with which we sew is made 
smoother and stronger by it; the prettiest dolls 
are made of wax ; and it is used in making the 
beautiful wax fruits and flowers which look so 
nearly like real fruits and flowers. 

The bees also collect the gum which comes from 
the poplar, birch, willow, and other trees, and 
from this gum they form a substance called pro- 
polis ; this is harder and firmer than wax, and 
the bees use it to strengthen the cells, and some- 
times to fasten the comb to the top of the hive ; 
it is also used to close all the cracks and holes 
in the hive where rain might come in, or where 
insects or snails might enter. 

Bees also gather the pollen or yellow dust of 



THE HONEY-BEE. 19 

flowers, and they have, on the last pair of legs, 
two little cavities, or " baskets," in which they 
carry it to the hive, where it is mixed with honey 
and made into a substance called " bee-bread." 
This " bee-bread " is used mainly for food for the 
young bees. Bees have been watched while gath- 
ering pollen, and it is said that from whatever kind 
of flower they begin to gather the pollen, they 
keep on gathering from the same kind until they 
fill their baskets and are ready to return with it 
to the hive ; and that they do this even when 
many other kinds of flowers are all about them. 

The air inside of a bee-hive, where so many 
little creatures are busily at work, is always warm, 
but the bees have a curious way of lessening the 
heat, and keeping the air pure. If you have ever 
been near a hive, you may have seen, just in front 
of the entrance, rows of bees swiftly moving their 
wings as though they were fanning ; and if you 
have looked within the hive, you have seen other 
rows of bees near the entrance, fanning in the same 
way ; this fanning keeps the air in motion, so 
that currents of cool air are all the time going 
in, and currents of warmer air are all the time 



20 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

passing out. If it were not for this, the air within 
the hive would get so heated that the wax would 
soften, and the combs would fall. This sometimes 
happens in very warm weather, in spite of all 
the bees can do to keep the hive cool, and then 
they get very angry, and sting any one who comes 
near them. 

Perhaps you would like to know more about the 
sting of the bee, and how so small an insect is 
able to hurt you so much. The sting consists of 
a hollow and sharp-pointed tube, or sheath, within 
which are two minute darts, which are hooked at 
the end, and the sheath connects with a bag of 
poison within the body of the bee. When the 
bee is angry, it thrusts the sheath into your 
hand, or whatever it wishes to sting; the darts 
are pushed through the sheath, and the poison 
flows into the wound thus made. 

But I must tell you about the young bees. In 
some of the cells the Queen lays her eggs, 
one in each cell, and in a few days these eggs 
hatch into little soft, white, worm-like creatures, 
which are taken care of and fed by the Workers. 
In five or six days more the Workers close the 



THE HONEY-BEE. 21 

top of each cell, and the little larva, or worm-like 
creature, thus shut in, soon begins to spin a silken 
covering around itself, which it completes in one 
or two days. This silken cover is called a cocoon, 
from a word which means a shell. In this shell, 
or cocoon, the young bee remains a week or more, 
until it is ready to come forth a perfect bee. It 
then bites a hole in the top of the cell, crawls out 
of its little nest, and, in a day or two, if it is a 
Working Bee, it is flying over the fields in search 
of honey. 

Among the cells for eggs there are always a 
few that are made larger than the others, and 
they are of a different shape ; these are for the 
young Queens, and they are called Royal Cells. 
When the eggs in these cells are hatched, the 
little larvae are fed with a different and better 
kind of food, and they grow into young Queens. 
Now, when a young Queen crawls out of her cell, 
and appears in the hive, the old Queen seems to 
be very angry, and, if she could get at the young 
Queen, she would sting her to death. But the 
young Queen is carefully guarded by some of the 
Workers, until it is known whether the old Queen 



22 PICTUKES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

will depart with a swarm. Perhaps you do not 
know what is meant by a swarm of bees. I will 
tell you. When a great many bees have been 
hatched, and the hive is not large enough for all 
of them to live in it, and work together, the old 
Queen leaves the hive and is followed by many 
of the Drones and Workers ; this is called swarm- 
ing. When the Queen alights, the other bees 
alight upon and around her, making sometimes a 
bunch of bees as large as a man's head. Now if 
the old Queen is going to leave the hive, the young 
Queen will be needed, and this is the reason why she 
is guarded so carefully. If the old Queen does not 
leave in a day or two, the two Queens are allowed 
to come near each other, and begin the fight which 
does not end until one of them kills the other. 

Every boy whose home is in the country knows 
what it is to hunt for the nests of the Humble- 
bees, for these bees build in the ground, or under 
stones, or in the little nests of grass that the field- 
mice have made and left. The Humble-bees are 
much larger than the Honey-Bees, but they do 
not live together in such large numbers ; in some 
nests there are not more than fifty or sixty bees, 



THE HUMBLE-BEES. 23 

but sometimes there are as many as three hundred, 
or even four hundred in the same family. In 
each nest there are four kinds, — the large females, 
the males, the workers, and the small females. In 
the autumn, all, except the large females, die ; these 
stay in a sort of chamber near the nest, which 
is made soft and warm with moss and grass, 
or they crawl into some sheltered spot under a 
stone, or a stump, or among the dry leaves, and 
there sleep until the warm sunny days of spring 
have come ; then each one begins to seek a spot 
in which to make her nest. When the bee has 
found a place to suit her, she begins to collect 
pollen and honey, which she brings to her nest, 
and when she has a little mass of it, she lays in 
it several eggs ; these soon hatch, and the young 
ones feed upon the pollen, and grow quite fast, 
and when they get their full size each one spins 
around itself a silken cocoon, which the old bee 
covers with wax. In these cells they remain 
until they change into perfect bees, and then 
they bite their way out. While these little bees 
have been growing, the old bee has gathered other 
masses of pollen and honey in which she has laid 



24 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

more eggs, so that little broods of bees are every 
week or two hatching out. The first broods are 
all workers. The small females and males are 
produced about the middle of summer ; and from 
the last eggs which are laid come the large females 
or queens, which live through the winter and found 
new colonies the next spring. 

The bees which I have been telling you about 
are called Social-Bees, because they live and work 
together in families ; but there are other kinds 
of bees that live alone, each one making her own 
nest, and these are called Solitary-Bees. One kind 
bores into wood to make her nest, and from this 
she is called the Carpenter-Bee. She has strong 
jaws, with which she bites out the wood, and the 
hole that she makes is a foot or more in length. 
It takes the little bee many days to do this. When 
she has made it deep enough, she begins to collect 
pollen and honey which she carries in, and when 
she has gathered a little mass of it, she lays an 
egg in it, and then begins to make a ceiling or roof 
so as to form a cell, for this long tube is divided 
into cells, each one of which is not quite an inch 
long. The ceiling or roof is made of the little 



THE SOLITARY-BEES. 25 

chips and bits of wood and dust which the bee 
has taken out, and which she glues together with 
a sticky fluid from her body. When the ceiling 
is finished, she gathers more pollen and honey and 
lays another egg, and then makes a roof for this 
cell, and she keeps doing this until the whole tube 
is divided into cells. You may wonder how the 
bees get out, — since those in the lowest cells hatch 
first, — and I will tell you. Before she begins to 
fill the tube with cells the mother-bee makes a 
side opening near the bottom, and fills it with 
a dust paste ; through this paste the first or lowest 
bee gnaws as soon as it is full grown, and the 
others follow in their turn. 

Another kind of bee makes her cells of pieces 
of leaves, and she is called the Leaf-cutting, or 
Tailor-Bee. You may have seen leaves, and some- 
times even the petals of flowers, which have been 
cut by this bee ; she does this with her sharp 
jaws more neatly than you could do it with your 
scissors. It takes her only a few seconds to cut 
out a neat piece, such as she needs, and then she 
flies away with it, carrying it with her hind legs. 
As soon as the cell is done, she fills it with pol- 



26 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

len, lays a single egg, then closes the top, and 
begins another cell ; a single Leaf-cutter makes 
sometimes as many as thirty cells in one season. 
The egg soon hatches, and when the little larva 
has grown to its full size, it spins a silken case 
within its leafy cell, and by and by changes into 
a perfect bee, which bites its way out of its cell. 

Another kind of bee makes her cells of mud, 
or of little grains of sand cemented together ; 
and this kind is called the Mason-Bee. 

Other kinds build under stones ; others dig long 
tunnels in the ground ; others burrow in the pithy 
stems of plants, and in the limbs of trees. 




The Wasp. 

Wasps eat other insects instead of feeding upon 
the sweet juices of flowers, and they do not make 



THE WASPS. 27 

any honey, but they make very nice nests for their 
young ones to live in, and take good care of them 
so that I hope you will like to read about them. 
Some kinds live quite alone, each one building 
her own nest, but most kinds live together in 
large numbers, and in each nest there are males, 
females, and workers. They build their nests 
in the ground, or in holes, or on trees, bushes, 
fences, or buildings. You have seen these nests, 
and you remember that they are made of some- 
thing which looks very much like paper ; it is a 
sort of paper made of wood. The wasps gnaw 
the little woody fibres, and, with their jaws, soften 
them into a kind of paste, which hardens into 
paper. The wasps were truly the first paper- 
makers in the world ! In the nest they build rows 
of cells of the same kind of paper, and in these 
cells the eggs are laid, and the young ones live 
and grow until they get to be perfect wasps. Some 
kinds of wasps build an open nest of only a few 
cells. Those called Mud-Wasps build their cells 
of mud, and after laying an egg in each cell, they 
fill the cells with insects and close the top. The 
insects are for the food of the young wasp. You 



28 



PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 



have not forgotten, Amy, the two cells which one 
of these Mud - Wasps built last ""summer on the 
wall in the corner of the parlor. She worked 
very fast, and was only a few hours in building 
a cell. Flying out at the open window, she very 
soon returned with a ball of mud in her jaws, 
which she carried to the spot where she was build- 
ing, placing and shaping it more neatly than you 
could have done it with your little hands. The 
day after she finished the first cell, she filled it 
with spiders, and closed the top with mud. While 
she was at work on the second cell, a gentleman 
got up to look at them more closely, and he broke 
a small piece out of the one 
which had been finished. As 
soon as she came in she saw 
the injury which had been 
done to her little cell, and 
immediately went to work to 
The Mud-Cells of the repair it, and in a very few 
Mud- Wasp. minutes she had nicely mended 

it. Here is a picture of those little cells as 
they looked before the second one was filled with 
spiders and closed. 




THE STORY OF THE COCOONS. 



29 



Almost every little girl and boy has seen the 
pretty yellow, silky cocoons that are made by the 
Tent-Caterpillar, or Apple-tree Worm as it is often 
called. Here is a picture of one of them, and of 





The Cocoon of the Tent- 
Caterpillar. 



The Tent- Caterpillar 
Moth. 



the pretty moth which comes out of it. A gentle- 
man once put a large number of these cocoons 
into a box, hoping to have, in a week or two, many 
of these pretty moths. But when he opened the 
box he found only a few moths, and a large num- 
ber of little insects which looked very much like 
the one whose picture you see here. 




You will like to know the name of these little 
insects, and how they got into the box, for it had 



30 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

been tightly closed all of the time. I will tell you. 
They are Ichneumons. That word looks as 
though it might not be easy for you to pronounce 
it, but you will find that it is not any longer than 
the word " butterfly," and I presume you never think 
that " butterfly " is a hard word to speak. The eggs 

from which these little insects hatched were laid 
by the mother Ichneumon in the body of the Ap- 
ple-tree Caterpillar, perhaps before it spun its 
little cocoon, perhaps not till after the cocoon was 
made ; for Ichneumons always lay their eggs either 
in, or upon, other insects, or in the eggs of other 
insects, and when the young Ichneumon hatches, 
it begins to eat up the insect in which it finds 
itself. This is just what those little fellows in 
the box had done ; they had eaten the caterpillars 
that were inside the cocoons, and, when they had 
grown large enough, they made their own little 
cocoons inside of the larger silky ones, and after 
a while they came out as perfect little Ichneu- 
mons. 

Some kinds of Ichneumons are much larger than 
those I have just been telling you about, and they 
have, on the hind part of the body, a very long 



THE ICHNEUMON. 



31 



piercer, composed of three bristle-like parts, with 
which they lay their eggs in deep holes. Here 
is a picture of one of the large ones laying her 




The Ichneumon. 

eggs. The holes are made in the trunk of a 
tree by the Boring Saw-Fly, for its own eggs, 
and after they are laid, the Ichneumon comes 
and lays its eggs in those of the Boring Saw-Fly. 
I will show you a picture of the Saw-Fly by and 
by, and will then tell you something more about it. 
Sometimes you will see little bunches growing 



32 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

on the leaves and stems of plants. These are 
called galls. Perhaps you have seen the oak- 
apples, or oak-galls that grow on the leaves and 
twigs of the oak-tree. They are not like the 
apples that grow on the apple-tree, and if you 
should cut one of them open, you would find, in 
the inside, a little white worm-like creature. How 
do you think it got in there ? There is no hole 
in the gall, and so you know that it has not crawled 
in. It has lived there all its life, and the little 
egg from which it hatched was laid by the mother 
when the leaf or stem was green and smooth. 
After the egg is laid, all this bunch grows around 
it; and when the little insect hatches, it has all 
this to feed upon, and when it has grown large 
and strong enough, it gnaws its way out of the. 
gall. There are many kinds of these little gall- 
flies, and the galls that they make differ very much 
from one another. Some kinds of galls are shaped 
like an apple ; others like a bunch of currants ; 
some are almost as hard as a stone, and others 
are as juicy as fruit. Some kinds of galls are 
very useful. The ink which we write with is made 
out of galls caused by a little gall-fly which lives 



THE BORING SAW-FLY. 33 

on the oak-trees that grow in Western Asia. Here 
is a picture of a little Gall-Fly which lives on 




The Kose-Bush Gall-Fly. 

rose-bushes, but you must not think that it is as 
large as you see it here. The straight black mark 
or line that you see near the picture shows 
you the length of the little insect itself. If you 
look on the stems of the rose-bushes, you will 
sometimes find long woody bunches or galls grow- 
ing firmly to the stems ; it is in these that the 
Rose-bush Gail-Flies live while they are in the 
young state. 

On the next page there is a picture of the Boring 
Saw-Fly of which I told you in the story of the Ich- 
neumon. It is a large black and yellow insect, 
and looks a little like a very large w^asp or hornet, 
with a very long sting. But what you see is not a 



34 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

sting; it is only the hard pointed end of the body, 
and under it is the borer with which the insect 
makes holes in the trunks of trees in which to lay 
its eggs. These eggs hatch into little white grubs, 
which feed upon the wood of the tree, and when 
large enough each one makes a little cocoon of 




The Tremex, or Boring Saw-Fly. 

silk and chips of wood in which it stays for a long 
time. When its wings have fully grown, and it 
is ready to come out, it breaks through its cocoon, 
crawls to the opening of its burrow, gnaws through 
the bark and flies out into the air. 

You have seen a carpenter at work with his 



THE SAW-FLY. 6b 

saw, and you know how quickly he can cut a 
board, or even a large stick of wood, into pieces ; 
but perhaps you do not know that some of the 
little insects have saws, which they use to cut 
holes and slits in the leaves and branches of trees, 
and other plants, in which to lay their eggs. 
Such insects are called Saw-Flies. Here is a pic- 
ture of one. This one is only about a quarter 




The Saw-Fly. 

of an inch long, but it is drawn large so that 
you may see its form better than you could if 
it were made just as large as it really is. You 
cannot see its two little saws, for they are on 
the under part of the body, but I will tell you 
about them. When not in use they lie in a deep 
groove on the under part of the hind body, and 
are covered by two pieces which serve as a sheath, 
but they are so fixed to the body of the little 



36 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

creature that she can draw them out of the groove 
and move them up and down, whenever she 
wishes to use them. Each one, like the carpen- 
ter's fine saw, has a back to keep it steady, and, 
besides being toothed on the edge, it is covered, 
on one side, with rows of very fine teeth, so that 
it is a rasp as well as a saw. The little insect 
moves these saws up and down, first one and 
then the other, until she makes a slit deep enough 
for her eggs. 

The young Saw-Flies look very much like small 
caterpillars ; they live upon and eat the leaves 
of plants. Some kinds live alone, other kinds 
live together in swarms under silken webs which 
they spin to shelter them. Other kinds live in 
swarms, but without any web over them, and when 
they are disturbed they curl themselves up into 
very curious shapes. Many of them go into the 
ground to make their little silken cocoons ; some 
kinds make them under leaves and stones, and 
others fasten them to the plants on which they 
live. Most of them stay in their cocoons all 
winter, and the next spring they come out per- 
fect little Saw-Flies. 



THE CATERPILLAR. 37 



THE SCALY-WINGED INSECTS, or LEPI- 
DOPTERS. 

This is the picture of a little worm-like animal 
which you can find almost any day in summer 




The Caterpillar, or Larva, of the Asterias Butterfly. 

on the parsnip or the carrot bed in the garden. 
But this picture does not show you its fine colors ; 
it is bright green, with bands of black and yellow 
spots, and it is very handsome. If you touch this 
little creature, it pushes out from its head two 
soft yellow horns. It is often called the Parsnip- 
Worm. But we will not call it a worm, for it is not 
one ; it is a caterpillar. Would you like to know 
why it is called a caterpillar instead of a worm ? 
It is because that by and by it will become a 
butterfly. A worm is never anything more than 
a worm, but all caterpillars are either baby-but- 
terflies or baby-moths ; and all of our beautiful 



38 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

moths and butterflies were once caterpillars liv- 
ing upon plants and eating leaves, instead of 
flying about and feeding upon the sweet honey 
of the flowers. If you could watch this cater- 
pillar you would find that after a few weeks it 
leaves the plants upon which it has been feeding, 
and crawls away to some sheltered spot on the 
side of a building or fence, or the trunk of a tree. 
Here it spins a little tuft of silk. I think you 
will like to know how it is that the caterpillar 
can spin this beautiful silk, and I will tell you. 
Within its body are two long bags which hold 
a sticky fluid ; these bags connect with a little 
tube which ends in the middle of the lower lip 
of the caterpillar. Now, when the caterpillar 
wishes to spin, he makes this fluid flow out of 
the little tube, and as soon as it comes to the 
air it hardens into a silken thread ; and all the 
silk used for sewing, for fringes and tassels, for 
pretty ribbons, and for beautiful dresses, comes 
from the cocoons or silken shells which cater- 
pillars spin around themselves. The caterpillar 
that I have been telling you about does not make 
a cocoon, but after it has spun its tuft of silk, it 



THE CHRYSALIS. 39 

fixes the little claws of its hind feet in it, and 
then spins a loop of many silken threads, which 
it fastens at both ends to the board or tree on 
which it is spinning ; when the caterpillar has 
made the loop strong enough, it passes its head 
under and works the loop over its back, so as to 
hold its body firmly, and keep it from falling. 
In a few hours its caterpillar skin bursts open 
and falls off, and then the little animal looks just 
as you see it in this picture. It is now called a 




The Chrysalis of the Asterias Butterfly. 

chrysalis. And here it hangs about two weeks, 
eating nothing, and not moving unless touched ; 
but in twelve or fourteen days the chrysalis skin 
bursts open on the back, and a beautiful Butterfly 
comes forth. At first it is soft and weak, and 
it clings to the empty shell, but its little limbs 



40 



PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 



soon become firm, its wings expand, and it flies 
away to feed upon the honey of flowers. Here 
is a picture of it as it now looks. It is black, 
with yellow, blue, and orange spots, and you can 
scarcely believe that it is the same insect that you 
first saw on the parsnip plants. 




The Asterias Butterfly. 

It does not grow any larger, for it is full-grown 
when it comes out of its chrysalis skin, but it 
flies about and soon lays its eggs on those 
plants that the caterpillars like to eat, and where 
they will find plenty of food as soon as they are 
hatched. By the time that the second brood of 
caterpillars has gone into the chrysalis form, it 



THE TURNUS BUTTERFLY. 41 

is late iii the fall, so they hang through all the 
winter, and come forth butterflies the next summer. 
The beautiful yellow and black butterfly, which 
you see in the warm sunny days of June and 
July, is one of the largest in our country. It is 
so shy that you cannot often get near it. Some 
times it flies very high in the air, above the houses, 
and even the tall trees, so that, if you were not 
looking sharply, you might suppose it to be a pretty 
yellow bird, instead of a delicate butterfly. When 
it is a caterpillar it lives upon the apple and w^ild- 
cherry trees, and feeds upon their leaves, and it 
has such a curious way of hiding that I must 
tell you about it. On the upper part of the leaf it 
spins a little web of silk, and folds over the edges 
of the leaf, and fastens them with silken threads 
so as to make a little case for itself. I will tell 
you what its colors are, so that you may know 
it when you find it. It is green with rows of blue 
dots, and yellow and black marks, and its head 
and legs are of a pink color. Early in the month 
of August it becomes a chrysalis, first hanging 
itself up by the little claws of its hind feet, and 
it comes forth as a butterfly the next summer. 
You may see its picture on the next page. 



42 



PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 




THE WHITE AND THE YELLOW BUTTERFLY. 43 

In May and June, and in July and August, you 
may see the beautiful White Butterfly near the 
growing mustard, radishes, turnips, and cabbage ; 
it is then laying its eggs on these plants. It 
fastens them to the under side of the leaves, and 
lays but a few on each leaf. These eggs hatch 
in about ten days, and the caterpillars which come 
from them feed upon the leaves, and grow to 
their full size, of about one inch and a half in 
length, in three weeks. When they are full grown, 
they leave the plants and go among the rocks, 
or into cracks in boards or timber, and each one 
spins a little tuft of silk ; into this tuft it fixes 
its hindmost feet, and then spins a loop to hold 
up the fore part of the body. Having done this 
it casts off its caterpillar skin and becomes a 
chrysalis. It stays in the chrysalis state about 
eleven days, and then comes forth as the beauti- 
ful White Butterfly. 

There is another butterfly that is more common 
than the one of which I have just told you. It is 
the Colias, or the Common Yellow Butterfly. You 
will see it early in the spring, and until June, 
in the fields and by the roadside. Sometimes 



44 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

you will find many butterflies of this kind sitting 
around a pool of water in the street. When you 
come near them they all fly away, but sometimes 
come back again when you are gone. When in 
the caterpillar state the Yellow Butterflies are 
green, and live upon the growing clover plants. 
I must tell you that a second brood of the Yellow 
Butterflies appear about the first of August, and 
these are seen in the fields till late in the au- 
tumn. 

There are many other beautiful butterflies which 
we see in our gardens, and in the clover-fields, 
and wherever there are blossoms. I wish I had 
pictures of them all to show you ; but I have not, 
and so I must ask you to look for them in the 
fields and meadows, and watch them there, and 
that will be even better than seeing pictures of 
them. 

The butterflies whose pictures I have now shown 
you have the hind wings extended into a sort 
of tail ; but the White Butterfly and the Yel- 
low Butterfly, and many others, — a few of which 
I will tell you of, — have the wings rounded as you 
see them in the pictures on the next two pages. 



THE MISIPPUS BUTTERFLY. 



45 



The Misippus Butterfly is of a yellowish-brown 
or tawny yellow color, with black stripes, and a 
black border, and the black border is spotted with 




The Misippus Butterfly. 



white. The caterpillar eats the leaves of the pop- 
lar and of the willow. 

The butterflies whose pictures I have now shown 
you, and about which you have been reading, live 
in the fields and meadows, and in the orchards 
and gardens, and we may see some of them every 
pleasant day in summer ; but on the next page there 
is a picture of a butterfly which lives upon the high 
mountains, and it has been named the Mountain 
Butterfly. It has been found only on Mount Wash- 



46 



PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 



ington, the highest of the White Mountains, — a 
wild and very interesting region in New Hamp- 




The Mountain Butterfly. 

shire, which you will like to visit when you are 
older. 

The Skipper Butterflies are so called because 
they fly only a little way at a time, and with a 




The Skipper. 

skipping, jerking motion. You will see them in 
every grassy field, and in the meadow, and often 
about low bushes and thickets. They are of differ- 



THE MOTHS. 47 

ent colors, but many of them are brown and yellow. 
The caterpillars live quite alone, often hiding in 
folded leaves held together by silken threads. 

I will now tell you about the Moths, and I think 
you would first like to know the difference be- 
tween a moth and a butterfly. 

The Butterflies fly in the daytime, and when 
they alight on the ground, or on a plant, and are 
at rest, they hold their wings erect, as you see 
them in the picture of the Mountain Butterfly; 
and the little feelers which grow out of the head 
are slender, and at the end of these there is a 
knob, and their caterpillars do not make the 
beautiful silky cocoons that I have told you about. 

The Moths fly mostly at night and at twilight, 
and when they alight, and are at rest, they have 
their wings flat, or sloping like a roof, as you 




A Moth. 



see them in this picture, and their feelers have 
no knob at the end. The caterpillars of many 
of the moths make silken cocoons. 



48 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

On the next page there is a picture of a large 
and beautiful moth, which is often seen at twilight 
hovering over the flowers of the garden, pushing 
its long tongue into the petunias, and other sweet 
blossoms, and darting from flower to flower as 
swiftly as the humming-bird. Sometimes it is 
called the Humming-bird Moth, because the noise 
which it makes with its wings when it is flying 
sounds like that which the humming-bird makes 
when it is fluttering around the flowers ; and 
sometimes it is called the Hawk-Moth, because it 




The Larva, or Caterpillar of the Five-spotted Sphinx. 

hovers over the flowers somewhat as a hawk hovers 
over the little animal which he is about to dart 
down upon. Its wings are of a mingled black 
and gray color, and on each side of its body are 
five orange-colored spots, and from these it gets 



THE FIVE-SPOTTED SPHINX, OR HAWK MOTH. 




50 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

the name of Five-spotted Sphinx. The caterpil- 
lar lives on the potato-plants and is called the 
" potato-worm." It is of a light green color, with 
white stripes on the sides, and a sort of thorn on 
the tail. In the month of August it gets to its 
full size, and is about three inches long. It 
then crawls down the stem of the plant on which 
it has been feeding, buries itself in the ground, 
and in a few days it throws off its caterpillar 
skin and becomes a bright brown chrysalis. Here 



The Chrysalis of the Five-spotted Sphinx. 

is a picture which shows you how it looks when 
it is in its chrysalis form. The slender part which 
is bent over from the head, and which looks like 
the handle of a pitcher, contains the long tongue 
of the moth. The chrysalis stays in the ground 
all winter, and the next summer the large moth 
crawls out of it, comes to the top of the ground, 
and if it is daytime, conceals itself under leaves 



THE CLEAR-WINGED SESIA. 51 

or in some quiet spot, and waits until evening, 
when it flies away in search of honey, which is its 
food. 




The Clear-winged Sesia. 

This moth has beautiful transparent wings and 
a broad fan-shaped tail, and it flies about in the 
brightest sunshine, instead of in the evening, and 
as it hovers over the flowers it looks so much like 
a little humming-bird, that it is sometimes called 
the Humming-Bird Moth. Another name for it 
is Clear-winged Sesia. You will sometimes see 
this pretty moth feeding upon the sweet blossoms 
of the phlox, and you will like to watch it as it 
flies from flower to flower. It does not alight 
upon the flowers, but it poises itself above them, 
keeping its wings in rapid motion all of the time. 



52 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

This little moth is blue and yellow, and it looks 
very much like a small wasp. When it is a cater- 




7\ 

The Peach-tree Borer. 

pillar it lives in the trunk of the peach-tree, and 
feeds upon th,e wood, and so it is called the 
Peach-tree Borer, The moth lays its eggs on 
the trunk of the tree, generally near the roots, 
and the little caterpillars gnaw through the bark 
into the tree, and there they live for about a year. 
They often injure the tree so much that it 
cannot bear fruit, and sometimes they gnaw quite 
around it, and thus cause it to die. They make 
their little cocoons just under the bark, or in the 
earth close to the roots of the tree. Sometimes 
this little moth lays its eggs on the cherry-trees. 

In the last part of summer, you may perhaps 
find in the fields the beautiful moth whose pic- 
ture you see upon the next page. Its fore wings are 
yellow, with six white stripes on each, and on the 



THE BEAUTIFUL DEIOPEIA. 



white stripes are little dots of black ; the hind 
wings are of a bright scarlet color with a wide 
irregular border of black. It is one of the prettiest 




The Beautiful Deiopeia. 

moths that you will ever see, and its name is Beau- 
tiful Deiopeia. The caterpillar of this little moth 
is said to feed upon the leaves of the blue lupine 
and the wild forget-me-not. 

You have often seen in summer a caterpillar 
thickly covered with short, stiff, and even hairs, 
which are black on the four forward rings, and 
on the two hind rings, and tan-red on those 
between. If this caterpillar be handled, it at 
once curls up into a ball. But I do not want 
you to handle it, as the stiff hairs may injure your 
fingers. In the autumn it crawls under a board 
or a stone, where it sleeps all winter. In the 
spring it makes a blackish cocoon > and in the sum- 



54 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

mer comes out a moth of a tawny color, with a 
few black spots on the wings , and a row of black 
dots on each side and above the body. 

The salt-marshes, or lowlands near the sea, 
are sometimes thickly inhabited by caterpillars, 
which eat the grass, and in this way do much 
injury to the owners of the marshes, who wish 
to cut the grass and make hay of it. Here is 
a picture of one of these caterpillars. In the 




The Salt-marsh Caterpillar. 

month of August the Salt-marsh Caterpillars are 
full grown, and then they sometimes leave the 
marshes and go on the higher lands so as to make 
their cocoons in those places that cannot be reached 
by the higlr tides. They hide in hay-stacks and 
wood-piles, under stones and in walls, where they 
make coarse hairy cocoons, and then change 
to chrysalids. Sometimes they remain on the 
marshes, and make their cocoons under the coarse 



THE SILK-WORM. 55 

grass and stubble. Here is a picture of the little 
chrysalis which is inside of the cocoon. After 





The Salt-marsh Moth and Chrysalis. 

staying in this form through all the cold winter, 
it conies forth the next June a beautiful moth 
with white fore wings, and yellow hind ones, 
and all spotted with black. In the warm sum- 
mer evenings, when the windows are open, and 
the lamps are lighted, these pretty moths fly 
into the room and dart about the flame until their 
wings are so burned that they can fly no more. 

But I must tell you about the Silk-worm, — the 
caterpillar from which comes almost all the silk 
used in the world. The egg from which it is 
hatched is about as large as a mustard-seed, and 
the little creature is at first only about one tenth 
of an inch in length. It grows very fast, for it 
spends almost all the time in eating, except when 
it is about to shed its skin. Like all other cater- 
pillars, it sheds its skin several times before it 
reaches its full growth. It feeds upon the leaves 



56 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

of the mulberry-tree, and during its caterpillar life 
it eats many thousand times its own weight. When 
full-grown it is about three inches in length, and 
its color is pale green, with darker marks, and 
its head is black. When ready to make its co- 
coon, the people who take care of these little crea- 
tures almost always place near each one of them 
a twig, or a rolled paper, or something hollow, 
into which it can crawl, and to which it may attach 
its silken threads. It first spins a loose covering 
of silk ; within this it spins a finer silk, the threads 
of which it glues together with a sort of gum ; 
and the inside is lined with more delicate silk 
glued more firmly together ; and thus the little 
chrysalis within the cocoon is sheltered from rain, 
wind, and cold. The cocoon is from an inch to 
an inch and a half in length, and it is of a yellow 
color. When the cocoon is finished, the caterpil- 
lar changes to a chrysalis, and remains in this 
state from two to eight weeks. In warm coun- 
tries, or in warm rooms, the moth comes forth 
much sooner than it does in cooler climates, or 
when kept in cool rooms. The color of the moth 
is grayish or yellowish white. This insect, so 



THE SILK-WORM MOTH. 57 

useful to man, was known in China more than 
four thousand years ago. From China it has 
been carried to many other countries, and it is 
now raised in vast numbers in Italy, France, Spain, 
Russia, and in other parts of the world ; and many 
thousands of people are employed in feeding and 
taking care of the caterpillars, and winding the 
silk from the cocoons, and getting it ready to be 
woven into ribbons, and webs of silk, satin, and 
velvet. , - 

A great many years ago silk was thought, by 
some people, to be a downy fleece which grew 
upon trees, and it was worth its weight in gold ; 
it was sometimes woven with threads of gold, and 
often beautifully embroidered with gold. It was 
so rare and costly an article that even an Emperor 
refused his Empress a garment of silk, because 
it was so expensive! It is now so common that 
it is worn in some form by almost every person. 

I want to tell you about the large silk-worm 
moths which live in the woods and groves of our 
country. There are several kinds whose cater- 
pillars make large silky cocoons, but, so far as 
we know, only one of these makes cocoons which 



58 



PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 



can be easily unwound. The moth is so large 
and so handsome, and its habits are so interest- 
ing, that I must tell all about it, and show 
you a picture of the caterpillar, and the cocoon, 
and the chrysalis, and also a picture of the great 
moth itself. A gentleman, M. Trouvelot, living 
in Medford, Massachusetts, has been studying and 
raising this moth for more than six years, and 
he has told us many new and interesting facts 
about it. The caterpillar is of a beautiful light 




The American Silk- Worm. 



green color, with pale yellow lines on its sides, 
and on every ring of its body are little warts, 



THE AMEBIC AN SILK-WORM. . 59 

or tubercles, of a lustre like pearl, and tinged with 
orange, red, or purple. The large green caterpillar 
which we found under the oak-tree last autumn 
was one of this kind, and you will remember, 
Amy, how beautiful it was in the evening; for 
then some of the spots shone like gold, others 
were rosy-red, while the body of the insect was 
of a clear pale-green color. The caterpillar likes 
to eat the leaves of the oak-tree, and it also eats 
the leaves of the elm, willow, birch, poplar, maple, 
and the leaves of the hazel and blueberry, and 
of other plants. By the time it is full-grown, M. 
Trouvelot says it has ealen not less than one hun- 
dred and twenty oak leaves. When ready to make 




The Cocoon of the American Silk- Worm. 

its cocoon, it first spins silken threads from one 
leaf to another, until it has drawn three or four 



60 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

leaves around itself in such a manner that they 
will enclose and partly conceal its cocoon ; it 
then spins between these leaves in every direc- 
tion until it is surrounded by silken threads, and 
within these it spins layers of silk which it glues 
together with a sort of gummy, sticky substance, 
and in this way the cocoon is made strong and 
firm. The cocoon is only about half as large as 
the caterpillar is when it begins to spin, and 
at first you can scarcely believe that it contains 
the insect ; but the caterpillar becomes smaller 
by spinning, for the silk is a fluid which flows 
out of its body. In four or five days the cocoon 
is finished, and the caterpillar changes to a 




The Chrysalis of the American Silk- Worm after the Cocoon is 
taken off. 



chrysalis, and remains in this state all winter, 
sometimes frozen as hard as a stone. The next 



THE AMERICAN SILK-WORM MOTH. 



61 



S3 - 



i 

B 



9 
I 

00 




62 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

summer, in June, the large and beautiful moth 
comes forth. ^ The moth lays its eggs on the 
under side of the oak leaves, and one moth lays 
three hundred or more. 

All of these pictures of the American Silk- 
Worm — the caterpillar, the cocoon, the chrysalis, 
and the moth itself — are from "The American 
Naturalist," a beautiful and interesting magazine 
of Natural History, published by the Peabody 
Academy of Science, at Salem, Massachusetts. 

Another large moth, of which I wish to tell you, 
is the Luna, or the " Pale Empress of the Night." 
Its wings expand four or five inches, and the 
hind ones are extended into a long tail. The 
wings are of a delicate light-green color, and on 
each one there is an eye-like spot which is clear 
in the centre and surrounded by rings of white, 
red, yellow, and black. In the caterpillar state 
it lives on trees, especially the walnut-trees, and 
in July and August it is two or three inches in 
length, and is then bluish-green, with a yellow 
stripe on each side of the body, and yellow bands 
on the back between the rings. On each ring 
there are about six pearly-colored warts, tinged 



THE CECROPIA. 63 

with purple, and at the end of the body there 
are three brown spots with a yellow border above. 
When it is ready to go into the chrysalis state, 
it draws together two or three leaves, and spins 
its cocoon inside of them. The cocoon falls with 
the leaves in the autumn, and the next June the 
beautiful Luna Moth conies forth from its silken 
covering where it has stayed during all the winter. 

Another moth of which I wish to tell you is 
the Cecropia. Its wings expand over six inches, 
and are of a dusky brown color, with clay-colored 
hind margins, and near the middle of each wing 
there is a large reddish spot with a white centre 
and a narrow black edging, and beyond the spot 
a reddish band with a white border on the inside. 
You may find this magnificent moth in the groves 
and near the borders of woods, in the early part 
of summer. The caterpillar is three inches long, 
of a light-green color, and has red and yellow 
warts armed with short bristles. It fastens its 
large cocoon to the side of a stem or twig. 

The large and beautiful Moth called the Pro- 
methea, has its wings brown with a drab 
border, and very prettily marked with wavy 



64 



PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 




o 

a 



J3 



lines of red and white. The caterpillar lives upon 
the sassafras-tree, and it is pale green with yellow 
feet, head, and tail, and its body is marked with 



THE PROMETHEA MOTH. 65 

red, yellow, and blue warts. Before making the 
cocoon, in which it is to stay all winter, the 
caterpillar fastens to the twig, with many silken 
threads, the leaf that is to cover its cocoon, so 
that it may not fall to the ground in autumn, with 
the other leaves ; then it spins its cocoon on the 
leaf, bending over the edges so as to cover and 
conceal it, and there it safely swings through all 
the storms and winds of winter. If you are walk- 
ing in the woods late in the autumn, or in the 
winter, you may, perhaps, find some of these 
cocoons, and if you take them home and keep 
them until the next July, you will have the pleas- 
ure of seeing these beautiful moths when they 
come out of their cocoons, and before they have 
been injured by flying about among the trees and 
bushes. 

You have seen the large tent-like nests that 
are sometimes made on apple-trees, and on wild- 
cherry trees ; they are called Worms'-nests, but 
they are made by the Tent-Caterpillar. The Moth 
lays her eggs on the branches of these trees, and 
covers them with a sort of varnish which makes 
them water-proof, for they are to remain on the 

VOL. IV. 5 



66 PICTUEES AM) STOEIES OF ANIMALS. 

trees through the autumn rains and winter snows. 
In the early part of summer, about the time the 
leaves begin to unfold, these eggs hatch into little 
caterpillars, which soon begin to make a silken 
nest, or tent, between the forks of the branches, 
and as they grow they make the tent larger by 
spinning new layers of silk. They go out of the 
tent to feed twice every day, once in the forenoon, 
and once in the afternoon, and return to their 
nest when they have finished eating. In crawl- 
ing from one twig to another they spin a thread 
of silk, so that, by following the thread, they may 
be able to find the way back to their nest. When 
they have eaten all of the leaves on the tree, they 
crawl down the trunk, spinning as they go, and 
feed upon the plants that grow near the tree, and 
you may sometimes see the grass around the roots 
of the tree covered by their silken threads. Some- 
times when another tree is near, they crawl to that 
and feed upon its leaves. They stay in their webs 
or tents at noon, and in stormy weather. When 
they have grown to their full size, they leave the 
trees, and wander about for a little while, but 
soon, in some sheltered spot, they spin their pretty 



THE TEXT-CATERPILLAR. 



67 



little cocoons, and in about twelve or fifteen days 
the moths come forth, and in the warm summer 





The Cocoon of the Tent- 
Caterpillar. 



The Tent-Caterpillar 
Moth. 



evenings they come in at the open windows and 
flit about the lights. 




The Geometer, or Span-worm. 

Many caterpillars, when they crawl, raise the 
middle of the body, as you see it in the picture ; 
these are called Span-worms, or Measure-worms, 
because they seem to measure the ground over 
which they crawl. They cannot help moving 
in this way, for they have no legs on the midde 
of the body. They live upon trees, and let them- 
selves down to the ground by a silken thread, 



68 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

which they spin from the mouth as they descend. 
When they are disturbed, they let themselves 
down and hang until all is quiet again, and then 
climb up by the same thread. The Canker-worms, 
which eat the leaves of our fruit and shade trees, 
are of this kind. About the time that the leaves 
of the apple-tree begin to start from the bud, the 
little caterpillars hatch from clusters of eggs which 
have been placed upon the trees by the moths. 
They immediately begin to eat, at first making 
only small holes in the leaves, but, as they grow, 
they enlarge these holes, until by and by little 
more is left than the veins of the leaves. In 
about four weeks they have grown to their full 
size, and they then spin their way down to the 
ground, into which they crawl and very soon go 
into the chrysalis form. They remain in the 
ground till after the autumn frosts, and then they 
begin to come out in the moth state whenever 
the weather is mild. 

This little moth is one of the Leaf-roll- 
ers. You will like to know how it gets 
this name, and I will tell you. When it is 
T roiier af " a cater piU ar ** r °U s U P ^ ie edges of a 




THE CLOTHES MOTH. 69 

leaf and fastens them with threads of silk, so as 
to make a little case in which it lives, and upon 
which it feeds. Other little caterpillars live in 
leaf and flower buds, fastening them with threads 
of silk so that they cannot open, and then they 
feed upon the tender leaves. The moths of these 
caterpillars are very small, and their fore wings 
are often prettily striped and banded, and some- 
times they are adorned with little spots, which 
shine like silver and gold. 

You have seen the little silvery-looking moths 
that fly about the rooms in early spring. They are 
so small that they can enter through cracks into 
closets, drawers, and chests, and they get under 
the edges of carpets, and into the folds of curtains 




The Clothes Moth. 

and lay their eggs, and the little caterpillars, as 
soon as they are hatched, begin to gnaw the 
carpet, clothes, curtains, or furs, or whatever 
they find themselves upon. Each one makes a 
little case for itself out of the cloth or fur on 



70 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

which it lives ; this little case is open at both 
ends, and as the little fellow grows, and needs 
more room, he makes the case larger by cutting 
slits at the sides and weaving in more threads. 



THE TWO-WINGED INSECTS, or DIPTERS. 

I will now tell you about some little insects 
which have only two wings, but which have, in the 
place of the second pair of wings, two little knobbed 
threads called balancers, and just behind the two 
wings, and in front of the balancers, are two tiny 
scales, which open and shut with the motion of 
the wings ; these are called winglets. 

The wings of these insects are very thin and 
clear, and when the sun shines upon them they 
are very beautiful, often showing all the colors of 
the rainbow. Many of these little creatures can 
move their wings very swiftly, and in this way 
they make a buzzing or humming sound, which 
sometimes is not very pleasant to hear. 

The most common of the two-winged insects, or 
dipters, as they are called, — a name which means 



THE MOSQUITOES. 71 

two-winged, — are the Mosquitoes and the Flies. 
I will first tell you about the Mosquitoes. When 
young, they live in the water. You have often 
seen, in the summer-time, in pools, and in tubs and 
barrels of water, the little animals called " wrig- 
glers " ; these are young Mosquitoes, and if you 
have ever watched them, you know that they are 
very lively ; they wriggle and tumble and twist 
about, and dive from time to time, then come 
to the top of the water to breathe, resting with 
the head downward ; for at this time of their 
life they breathe through a little tube in the tail 
which ends in a feather-like tuft. In about two 
weeks they shed their skin, and although they 
still live in the water, their form is changed, and 
they now breathe through two little tubes upon 
the back. When it is time for the Mosquito 
to change into the winged form, it comes to the 
top of the water, and raises the middle portion 
of the body a little, the skin soon splits down 
the back, and the little creature quickly draws 
out its head and body, but still rests on its old 
skin, and floats about as though in a boat. The 
thin delicate wings soon unfold, and grow dry and 



72 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

firm, and the little insect flies away, happy in 
its new life, and ready to pierce men and animals 
for the blood upon which it delights to feed. 

Mosquitoes and all other gnats — for Mosquitoes 
are one kind of gnat — are a very hungry and 
bloodthirsty race, and annoy us by their disagree- 
able hum and their poisonous bite. Their mouth 
is formed just right for the work which it has 
to do. It consists of a little sheath in which there 
are five slender bristles, sharper than the sharpest 
needles, with which they easily pierce our skin, 
and through which they suck our blood, first put- 
ting into the wound a poisonous fluid to make 
the blood thinner, and so cause it to flow more 
freely. 

Some kinds of the two-winged insects, when 
in the grub or larva state, do much harm to the 
farmer by feeding upon the sap of the growing 
wheat. These are called Wheat-Flies and Hes- 
sian-Flies. They often move in great swarms, 
early in the morning, or just before night, in order 
to find the wheat-fields, and lay their eggs upon 
the growing grain. These flies are very small. 
The Hessian-Fly is no longer than the line which 






THE HESSIAN-FLY. 73 

you see here beside its picture. It lays its eggs 
on the blades of the wheat, and in four or five 
days the eggs hatch ; the young then crawl down 




The Hessian-Fly. 

the plant and fix themselves to its stem, just be- 
low the surface of the ground, and there feed 
upon its juices, and thus greatly injure, and some- 
times kill, the tender plant. The Wheat-Fly is 
even smaller than the Hessian-Fly, and it lays 
its eggs in the blossoms of wheat and other grains, 
and the grubs or larvae live in the heads of the 
grain, and feed upon the blossom and the growing 
tender kernel ; they do not eat the kernel after 
it has become hard. 

The Crane-Flies, or Harry-long-legs, have a long 



74 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

body, and long legs which come off very easily. 
You may find these flies in the meadows, and 
sometimes they come in at the open window and 
rest upon the window-pane. When in the larva 
form some kinds live in the water ; other kinds, 
when young, live in the ground and feed upon 
the roots of plants. A few days ago, a lady found 
in her hanging flower-basket a queer looking insect 
just coming out of its chrysalis skin. It was a 
Crane-Fly, which had been living upon the roots 
of her plants. 

Many of the two-winged insects are very trouble- 
some to men and animals. You have been bitten 
often enough by the mosquitoes to know how an- 
noying they are. But the Black-Flies of the north- 
ern parts of our country and of Canada are even 
more troublesome than the mosquitoes. In June 
the air is filled with swarms of these insects, and 
hunters, and fishermen, and all who go into the 
woods, suffer greatly from their bites, which draw 
the blood and cause great irritation and pain. 
Later in the summer other kinds of flies come 
to take the places of the Black-Flies ; these are 
so small that one can scarcely see them, and so 



THE FLIES. 



75 



the Indians of Maine call them the " nosee-um." 
The bite of these insects does not draw blood, but 
it causes a burning and smarting feeling like that 
caused by sparks of fire. 





The Horse-Fly. 



The Bee-Fly. 





The Aslius-Fly. The Bot-Fly. 

There are many hundred kinds of flies. Some 
live in the house and are called House-Flies ; these 
are very fond of sugar and all sweet food, and 
they have their mouth formed for lapping. Some 
kinds fly about the horses, and are called Horse- 
Flies ; these pierce the skin with their sharp lancets, 
and suck the blood of the horse. Their eyes are 



76 PICTUEES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

very beautiful and very large also, making up 
nearly the whole of the head. Some flies when 
in the grub state live in the stomach of the horse ; 
these are called Bot-Flies. Some kinds look like 
bees, and are called Bee-Flies ; these live in the 
woods, and in the spring they are often seen in 
the sunny paths. They fly swiftly, but stop every 
little while and balance themselves in one place 
in the air. They often hover over the early flowers 
like humming-birds, and with their long bills suck 
out the sweet honey. Some flies have a very long 
body, and they catch and eat other insects ; these 
are called the Asilus-Flies. When young they live 
in the roots of plants. One kind lives in the 
roots of the pie-plant, which you have often seen 
growing in the garden. 

One of the most curious things about flies is, 
that they can run up and down window-panes, 
and along the ceiling, back downward, without 
any danger of falling. They can do this because 
on each foot, besides two hooks curved backward 
there are two minute flaps, or suckers, covered 
with the most delicate hairs, and these stick so 
closely to the surface of the pane or ceiling that 
they hold the fly and keep it from falling. 



THE TIGER BEETLES. 



77 



THE SHEATH-WINGED INSECTS, or BEE- 
TLES. 



Here are pictures of insects which are very 
different from those that yon have been reading 
about. They have four wings, but the upper ones 
are hard and horn-like, while the under ones are 
thin, and when these insects are not flying, the 





The Common Tiger Beetle. The Hairy-necked Tiger Beetle. 

thin under wings are folded up like a fan, and are 
hidden under the hard upper ones. They are 
called beetles ; the word " beetle " means biter, 
and beetles have very strong jaws, with which they 
bite their food. When first hatched from the egg 
they are soft and worm-like, and are then called 



78 PICTUEES AND STOEIES OF ANIMALS. 

grubs. The colors of beetles are often very beauti- 
ful, and sometimes so brilliant that they shine like 
polished gold and precious stones. There are many 
thousand kinds of beetles, but in this little book 
you will see pictures of only a very few of them. 

The two beetles whose pictures I have just shown 
you are called Tiger Beetles, and they are rightly 
named, for, like the tiger, they are not only very 
beautiful, but they are also very fierce. You will 
see them in warm sunny places, and in the roads 
in the country every pleasant summer day. As 
you come near them they fly quickly away, but soon 
alight again. Their little grubs have very 
strong jaws, and, like the beetles, they 
feed upon other insects. The grubs live 
in holes which they dig in the ground ; 
The Ti"-er when they are hungry, they come up so 
Beetle Grub. as i have the head just even with the 
top of the ground, and there they wait until some 
little insect passes by, when they seize him, drag 
him into the hole and eat him. 

The Caterpillar-Hunter is of a bright shining 
green color, and it is very handsome. It does 
not fly, but it runs very rapidly. It is called 




THE CATERPILLAR-HUNTER. 



79 



the Caterpillar-Hunter, because it eats the young 
of other insects. It kills and eats great num- 
bers of canker-worms, hunting them in the grass, 




The Caterpillar-Hunter. 

and even going up the trunks of the trees in order 
to catch them. It is therefore a very useful bee- 
tle, as it destroys insects which would injure our 
apple and shade trees. 

If you take a fine net and dip it into the 
shallow waters of the pond, and move it around 
among the grass and weeds, and then take it 
from the water and carefully look at the things 
that are in it, you will hnd that you have caught 



80 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

several different kinds of animals, and among 
them you will sometimes find the curious Water 
Beetle, whose picture I here show you. 




The Water Beetle. 

The hind legs of this beetle are broad, and 
fringed with hairs, so that it can swim about very 
fast ; it comes every few minutes to the top of 
the water to breathe, then darts away to catch 
and eat some water insect, or perhaps a young 
fish. The young or larva Water Beetle has a 
long body, six legs, and long, sharp, hooked jaws, 
that move sidewise, and it moves about swiftly 
in the water, and is a very hungry, savage creature, 
catching and killing small fishes and all other little 
water animals which it can master. After grow- 
ing to its full size, and after shedding its skin 
several times, it creeps out of the water and digs 



THE CARRION BEETLE. 81 

a little hole in the bank of the pond, and there 
goes into the chrysalis state, and by and by it 
comes out a perfect Water Beetle. 

Here is a picture of a large beetle which often 
flies in at the open window, in summer evenings 




The Carrion Beetle. 

when the lamps are lighted. You will know it 
by the color of its wings, which are black with 
orange-colored bands across them. It feeds upon 
the bodies of dead animals which it finds, and 
it is called the Carrion Beetle. Some kinds, when 
they find a dead bird, frog, or mouse, begin to 
dig the earth away under it, and keep at work 
until they sink the little animal out of sight ; the 
eggs are then laid in the buried body, and when 
the young hatch, they find themselves in the 
midst of plenty of food suited to their wants. 



82 



PICTURES AXD STORIES OF ANIMALS. 



This little beetle is found about decaying plants 
and animals. When you touch it, and when it 




The Rove Beetle. 

runs, it raises the hind body and moves it in 
different directions. It is called the Rove Beetle. 




The Horn-Bug. 

This beetle is called the Horn-Bug, or Stag 
Beetle, because its upper jaws are very long, 
curved, and branched like the horns of one kind 



THE GOLDSMITH BEETLE. 83 

of deer. We do not very often see it, for it stays 
in its hiding-places during the daytime, and flies 
about only at night. It feeds upon the sap of 
trees, and sometimes kills caterpillars and sucks 
out their juices. It lays its eggs in cracks in the 
bark of trees, often near the roots, and the grub 
lives in the trunk and roots five or six years be- 
fore it becomes a perfect beetle. 




The Goldsmith Beetle. 

Here is a picture of one of the handsomest 
beetles in our country. On the upper side it 
is of a beautiful yellow color, and, when the sun 
shines upon it, it glistens like burnished gold ; 
the under side is copper-colored, and covered with 
a whitish wool. It is called the Goldsmith Beetle. 
It feeds upon the tender leaves of trees, and 
flies about only at night, and in the morning and 



84 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

evening twilight. In the daytime it hides on 
the under side of the leaves, and sometimes draws 
two or three leaves together, and holds them with 
its claws. 




The Phaneus. 

Some kinds of beetles have feelers ending in 
a knob, which is made up of several pieces ; and 
they have toothed legs, and a plate which covers 
the face like the leather front of a boy's cap. 
These beetles are called Scarabseians, and they 
are very common. Every warm night in spring 
they come out of the ground — where they live 
in the grub state — and fly about. One kind is 
called the Dor-Bug, and when our windows are 
open in the spring and summer evenings it comes 
in, and with a buzzing sound flies around the room 
a few times, but, soon striking the walls, it falls 



THE BUPRESTIS. 85 

upon the floor, where we can easily catch it and 
examine it. Some of the Scarabaeians have very 
brilliant colors, and some have a horn on the 
head, as you see it in the picture of the Phaneus. 




The Buprestis. 

Some kinds of beetles like to stay, in the day- 
time, on the bark of the trees, and on the fences, 
where they can feel the warm sunshine. The 
Buprestis is a beetle of this kind. It is about an 
inch long and of a bronze color. It moves about 
slowly on the trees ; and if you try to take it in 
your hand, it folds up its legs, and drops upon the 
ground and pretends to be dead. In the grub 
state it lives in the trunks of trees, where it bores 
holes in different directions, eating the wood, 
and doing great harm to the trees. 

I think almost every child has seen the Spring- 



86 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

Beetles, or Snap Beetles, which are so common 
in summer ; they are often found in the house, 
on the window-sill or doorstep, and if you place 
one of these beetles on its back, it at once, with 
a snap and a jerk, throws itself upward, and this 
it keeps doing until it comes down right side up. 
The Spring-Beetles that we usually see are only 
about half an inch in length, but here is the 




The Eyed Spring-Beetle. 

picture of a very large one ; it has on the 
upper part of its body two large oval spots which 
look like eyes, and from these it is named the 
Eyed Spring-Beetle. It is found upon trees, fences, 
and the sides of buildings. 



THE CURCULIOS. 87 

The pretty " Fire-Flies " that you see at night 
upon the ground, shining like specks of flame, or 
flying about, sometimes so high in the air that 
they look like little twinkling stars, are small 
beetles which have the power of giving out a bril- 
liant light. The Fire-Flies of Brazil, and other 
warm countries, are so large, and their light is 
so bright, that the people can see to work and to 
read by it. The Indians sometimes fasten these 
beetles to their moccasons, in order to light their 
path through the dark forests. 

On the next page you may see pictures of five 
little beetles which are called Curculios, or Weevils. 
If you disturb these little insects, they fold up their 
legs and pretend to be dead ; and if they are upon 
a tree or plant, they fall to the ground, and do 
not move till all is quiet again. The straight 
line near each beetle shows you its real length, 
for they are all drawn large so as to show their 
form. The Plum Weevil lays its eggs in plums, 
peaches, apples, cherries, and other fruits. The 
Rice Weevil feeds upon rice, and also upon wheat 
and Indian corn. The Pea Weevil lays its eggs 
in the tiny pods of the pea, and the little grubs live 



88 



PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 



in the peas all winter and come out perfect beetles 
the next spring. The beautiful Golden Robins, 
or Baltimore Orioles, like to eat these little grubs, 
and so they come to the pea-vines and split open 
the pods and eat the peas in order to get the 






The Plum Weevil, 
or Curculio. 



The Rice Weevil. 



The Pea Weevil. 





The White-Pine Weevil. 



The Long-snouted Nut Weevil. 



grubs, and perhaps they also like the tender peas. 
The White-Pine Weevil lays its eggs on the pine- 
trees, and almost always on the central and lead- 
ing shoot ; the grubs bore into the shoot, and 



THE LONG-HORNED BEETLES. 89 

gnaw in different directions, and thus they prevent 
the tree from growing into a tall, straight, and 
beautiful pine. Other kinds of weevils lay their 
eggs in nuts and acorns when they are small 
and soft, and the grub feeds upon the tender 
kernel ; these are called Nut-Weevils. 

Some kinds of beetles have such long curved 
feelers that they have been named the Long-horned 
Beetles. One of these, called the Painted Clytus, 
you will see late in the summer and in the early 
autumn, running up and down the trunks of the 
locust-trees ; they are trying to find little crevices 
in the bark in which they may lay their eggs. 
These beetles like to eat the pollen or yellow dust 
of flowers, and you may often find them feeding 
upon the bright blossoms of the golden-rod. They 
are very beautiful little creatures ; the body is 
velvet-black striped with yellow, and they have 
dark-brown feelers and reddish legs. The Beauti- 
ful Clytus is larger, and is seen in July. 

One of the Long-horned Beetles is called the 
Apple-tree Borer, because when it is a grub it lives 
for two or three years in the trunk of the apple- 
tree, and, with its sharp jaws, gnaws long winding 
passages. It is also found in the trunks of thorn- 



90 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

trees and in quince-trees. The beetle is brown, 
with white stripes. It flies about only at night ; 





The Painted Clytus. The Apple-tree Borer, — the perfect 

insect and grub. 

in the daytime it hides among the leaves of the 
trees and plants upon which it feeds. 

This large beetle is called the Broad-necked Pri- 




The Broad-necked Prionus. 



onus. It gets the name of Prionus from a word 
which means a saw, because the feelers seem to 



THE LADY-BIRD. 91 

be toothed like a saw, and sometimes the upper 
jaws are very long and toothed. The grub of this 
beetle lives in the trunks of the balm-of-gilead 
and poplar trees. 

Here are pictures of three small but very pretty 
beetles. The Chrysomelan has a dark green head 
and body ; its upper wings are silvery-white and 
green, and its thin under wings are rose-red. It 
lives upon the elm and linden trees, and feeds upon 





The Chrysomelan. The Cucumber The Lady-Bird. 

Beetle. 

their leaves. You may find the little Cucumber 
Beetle almost any day in summer on the cucumber, 
squash, and melon vines, for it is very fond of 
the tender leaves of these vines, and also of the 
pollen of the flowers. It often gets into the blos- 
som as soon as it opens, and sometimes it is caught 
by the twisting and closing of the top of the flower, 
and, in order to get out, it is obliged to gnaw a 
hole through the side of its prison. You have 



92 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

often seen the pretty spotted Lady-Birds, for we 
find them upon many of our plants ; but they do 
not feed upon the leaves, they eat the plant-lice, — 
little insects which often do our plants much harm. 



THE CICADAS, &c, or HEMIPTERS. 

In the warm days of summer, in July and Au- 
gust, you may hear the Cicadas singing among 
the branches of the elm-trees in the park or by 
the roadsides. You will look up into the trees 




The Dog-day Cicada, or Harvest-Fly. 

very eagerly to see one, but they keep so close to 
the limbs and leaves, and they are up so high, that 



THE CICADA. 93 

you will have to look a long time, and perhaps 
many times, before you will get a glimpse of one. 
But I will show you its picture now, and tell 
you what its colors are, and then you will know 
the real one if you see it upon a tree, whether 
you hear it singing or not. The upper part of the 
body of the Cicada is black, marked with green 
lines ; the under part is covered with a white sub- 
stance which looks like flour ; and its wings are 
large, thin, and very beautiful. The sound of its 
singing is clear and shrill, and so loud that some- 
times it can be heard at the distance of a mile. But 
perhaps we ought not to call it singing, for it is 
not made by the mouth or throat, but by two little 
instruments, one on each side of the body, which 
are formed like little kettle-shaped drums. The 
people who lived long ago in Greece loved so much 
to hear the music of these little insects, that they 
often kept them in cages, and they called them 
the " Sweet Prophets of the Summer." 

The Cicada lays its eggs in holes which it makes 
in the branches of trees, and the young ones, almost 
as soon as they are hatched, crawl to the side of 
the limb, let go their hold, and fall to the ground. 



94 PICTUEES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

They then dig into the soil, and make their way 
to the roots of the tree, which they pierce with 
their sharp beak, and then feed upon the juices. 
When it is near the time for them to change into 
the winged form, they come towards the top of 
the ground, and there they live for several days, 
in the little burrows which they make in digging 
their way out. If the weather is warm and pleas- 
ant, they come to the top of the hole or burrow, 
and peep out, as if to see what is going on, but 
go down into the ground again if the weather 
grows cold or wet. At last, in the night, they 
come out of the ground and crawl up the trunk 
of a tree, or upon the fence, and cling firmly with 
the little claws of their feet. The skin is now 
dry, and after a while it splits on the back ; the 
Cicada pushes out its head, draws out its body, 
leaving its empty skin still fastened to the tree, 
and looking a little way off very much like a 
large beetle. The Cicadae are often called Harvest- 
Flies, and the one whose picture I have shown you 
is called the Dog-day Harvest-Ply, because it is 
often heard for the first time in the summer on 
the twenty-fifth day of July, the beginning of the 
Dog-days. 



THE TREE-HOPPER. 95 

Here is a picture of a Cicada, which is said to 
be seen in the same region or place only once in 




The Seventeen-year Cicada. 

seventeen years, and so it is often called the 
Seventeen-year Locust. As it is not at all like 
a locust, but is a real Cicada, we will call it by 
its true name, which is Seventeen-year Cicada. 
The large veins and the borders of its wings and 
its eyes are red. 

You will often see on trees, bushes, and on flow- 
ers, a curious-shaped little green creature, which, 
when you try to pick it up, will hop quickly away. 
It is called a Tree-Hopper, and it feeds upon the 
juices of plants. On the next page* there are two 
pictures of it : one is drawn of the real size of 
the insect, and as it appears when you look 
upon its back, and the other is made large, and 
as it appears when you look at its side. In 



96 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

the early part of autumn you will see many of 
these little Tree-Hoppers upon the branches of 





The Tree-Hopper. 

the locust-trees, but as they always sit along the 
limb, and not across it, and as they have such a 
curious form, and are so quiet unless you put your 
fingers towards them, you might at first sight 
think they were only the little thorns of the tree. 

Very often in the summer the edges of the leaves 
on the cherry and peach trees begin to curl, and 
at last the leaves on many of the branches, and 
perhaps on all of them, are so curled that the 
beauty of the tree is taken away. If you look 
at the leaves you will find on the under side a 
great number of little animals called Aphides, or 
Plant-Lice. They live upon all kinds of plants, 
and sometimes in such large numbers as to wholly 
cover the leaves. They have a very sharp beak 
with which they pierce the leaves, stems, and roots 




THE SCORPION BUG. 97 

of plants so as to feed upon the sap. On the 
hind body there are two little tubes from which 
they give out small drops of a fluid which is as 
sweet as honey. Ants are very fond of this sweet 
fluid, and they crawl up the stems of plants 
and the trunks of trees in order to feed upon it. 
This is the reason that ants are so numerous upon 
the cherry-trees. Here is a picture of one of these 
little creatures. Its color is green ; 
and it is very small, as you see by ^^^ 
the straight mark in the corner, 

The Aphis or Plant- 

which shows you its real length. Louse. 

The Scorpion-Bug lives in ponds, 
slow-moving streams, and pools, and 
feeds upon little insects which it 
finds upon the plants that grow in 
the water. It seizes and holds them 
with its strong fore legs, which shut 
together like pincers. It has a 
The Scorpion-Bug. very sharp sting. 

As soon as the leaves of the squash-vines begin 
to grow, the Squash-Bugs come to them, and, in 
the night, lay their eggs in little clusters on the 
under side of the leaves ; the eggs soon hatch into 

VOL. IV. 7 





98 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

little bugs, which pierce the leaves 
and feed upon the sap. When the 
cold autumn weather comes they 
leave the vines, and crawl into little 
crevices in walls and fences, where 
The Squash-Bug. they sleep all winter. 



THE STRAIGHT-WINGED INSECTS, or OR- 
THOPTERS. 

Here is a picture of the Earwig which lives 
under stones and under the bark of old trees, and 
which flies about only at night. Some 
people think that it will crawl into 
our ears when we are asleep, but we 
need not be afraid of it, for no one 
knows that it ever does so. At 
the hind part of the body it has a 
pair of sharp-pointed nippers, which 

The Earwig. 

it can open and shut like a pair of 
scissors. The Earwig eats fruits and the petals 
of flowers, and it is said to guard its eggs and 
young ones very carefully. 




THE COCKROACHES. 99 

The Cockroaches live in kitchens, pantries, and 
closets, and they eat all kinds of food, and some- 
times they eat clothing, carpets, and shoes, and 




The Cockroach. 

even the leather binding of books. They hide 
during the daytime, and at night, when all is 
dark and quiet, they come out of their holes and 
run over the floors, tables, and shelves. 

On the next page there is a picture of a curious 
insect which has no wings, and which looks so 
much like a branching twig that it has been 
named the Walking-Stick. It crawls slowly, and 



100 



PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 



often remains upon a branch or stem a long time 
without moving, and, as its color is a greenish- 
brown, it looks so much like a part of the branch 




The Walking-Stick. 

upon which it is, that you will not see it unless 
you look very closely. But late in the autumn, 
when the leaves of the trees have fallen, you 






THE MANTIS. 101 

may, perhaps, find it upon the ground and upon 
ledges of rock. 

The Mantis is another very curious insect which 
lives upon trees and bushes. It feeds upon flies, 




The American Mantis. 

caterpillars, and other insects, and it has such 
a strange way of catching them that I am sure 
you will like to know about it. The Mantis crawls 
about slowly, or sits motionless, with its long fore 
legs stretched out and held up like arms, and, when 
any insect comes near, creeps towards it, then 
darts upon it with a spring, just as a cat darts 
upon a bird or mouse, seizes it, and kills it by 
squeezing it with its spiny fore legs, and then 
eats it. From its habit of holding up its fore 
legs, it has been named the Praying Mantis. 
Some of these insects have wings which look 
like green leaves, and others have wings that 
look like dry and slightly withered leaves. 



102 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

The Crickets are little insects which you may 
see every day in summer, in the fields, in paths, 
and by the roadside ; and you may hear their 
music, too, every summer night, and all the night 
long if you are awake. They are calling their 
mates, and they make the sounds which you hear 
by lifting the wing-covers, and rubbing them 
together. Many of these crickets are black, and 
are called the Field-Crickets. They eat the grass 
and tender plants, and often fruits and roots; 
-and sometimes they kill and eat other insects. 
They lay their eggs in holes in the ground. When 
the cold weather comes, most of them die, but a 
few hide under stones and in holes, and so live 
through the winter. They are quarrelsome little 
creatures, and often fight fiercely with each other. 

The House-Cricket lives in the cracks of floors 
and walls, and about the hearths and chimney- 
places, and its cheerful music is very pleasant to 
hear. 

I must tell you that each kind of cricket and 
each kind of grasshopper has its own notes ; no 
two kinds make the same noise or music. 

On the next page there is a picture of a beauti- 



THE CRICKETS. 



103 




ful cricket which lives upon the 
stems and branches of shrubs and 
trees, and hides during the day- 
time among the leaves and flow- 
ers. It is called the Tree-Cricket, 
and sometimes the White Climb- 
ing-Cricket, for its color is white 
as ivory 

insect is loud and shrill, and it is heard from 
twilight until the dawn of day. 

But perhaps the most curious of all is the 
Mole-Cricket. Like the mole it lives in the ground 
in little burrows which it digs with its broad 
stout fore feet. It eats the roots of the grass, 



The White Climbing- 

The music of this little Cricket. 




The Mole-Cricket. 



and in gardens it often does great harm by eat- 
ing the roots of the vegetables and of the flowers. 
The Katy-did looks like a large grasshopper. 



104 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

It lives upon trees, and in the daytime is quiet 
and conceals itself among the leaves, or keeps 
close to the trunk or branch, but at night, and 
sometimes in cloudy days, just before night, it 




The Katy-did. 

begins to sing, or to make the sounds which we 
call singing. These sounds seem to be, like the 
words " Katy-did," and so the little insect is 
named the Katy-did. You will like to know how 
this music is made. In the upper part of each 
wing-cover, near where it is joined to the body, and 



THE KATY-DID. 105 

where one wing-cover laps over the other, there 
is a little membrane, which looks somewhat like 
thin glass ; this membrane is set in a sort of frame, 
and when the Katy-did opens and shuts its wing- 
covers, these frames are rubbed against each other, 
and thus the sounds are produced. 

The color of the Katy-did is green, so it is not 
easy to see it among the leaves ; but if you should 
see one, and put out your hand to take it, the 
little creature would quickly drop to some lower 
branch or twig, and then if, after another long 
search, you should find it, and try once more to 
put your hand over it, it would drop again. I 
saw a little Katy-did do this several times, until 
at last he dropped upon the ground ; by quickly 
placing a hat over him, he was secured, and a 
pretty creature he was, with very long delicate 
feelers, and beautiful leaf-like wings. 

You have often seen grasshoppers and locusts, 
for they live in every garden, and in the grass 
which grows by the roadside, as well as in the 
meadows and fields. They are so much alike that 
I must tell you how you may know one from 
the other. Grasshoppers have long and very 



106 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

slender feelers ; Locusts have short and stout 
ones. 

The eggs of these insects are laid in the ground, 
and the young ones hatch in the spring. At first 




The Bed-legged Locust or Grasshopper. 

they have no wings, but they hop about without 
them, eat grass, grow very fast, and soon shed 
their skin. After a while the wings begin to 
grow on the top of the back ; the little insect con- 
tinues to eat and grow, and from time to time 
to shed its skin, until at last it comes out a perfect 
grasshopper, or locust, with thin, delicate, and 
often beautifully colored wings. 



THE LOCUSTS. 107 

Iii the countries of the East, in Asia and Africa, 
locusts are sometimes seen in such immense 
swarms that they darken the sky like a cloud, 
and the noise that they make in flying is like 
the rushing of a whirlwind. In the Bible this 
noise is spoken of as being "like the noise of 
chariots on the tops of mountains." Wherever 
they alight, they eat up every green thing, so 
that famine and death follow in their track. 
Travellers have sometimes seen the locusts piled 
upon the ground to the depth of two feet, as far 
as the eye could reach ! The ground over which 
they have passed looks as though it had been 
scorched by fire, and it is from this that they 
get the name of Locust, which is from a word 
that means a burnt place. The Emperor Alex- 
ander once sent out an army of thirty thousand 
soldiers to overpower an army of locusts. The 
soldiers formed a line, and advanced with shovels 
and collected the insects in sacks and burned them. 

Some parts of our own country have at different 
times been overrun by locusts ; and in one instance, 
in Kansas, a beautiful field of corn was attacked 
in the night by these insects, and the next morning 



108 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 



not a blade was to be seen ; every part had been 
eaten in one night ! 



THE NERVE -WINGED INSECTS, or 
NEUROPTERS. 

Here is a picture of the May-Fly, a pretty little 
insect which lives only a few hours, or at the most 
only a day, after it gets its wings; and so it is 




The May-Fly. 

often called the Day-Fly. But in its larva form, 
that is, before it has wings, it lives for ,two or three 
years, and all of this time in the water, under 
stones, or in holes which it digs in the banks 



THE MAY-FLY. 109 

of ponds and streams. These holes or burrows 
are made below the surface of the water, in the 
soft soil, or, if made in coarse soil, they are lined 
with fine earth, and they have two openings, so 
that the little creature can go in, and come out 
again, without being obliged to back out, or to 
turn around in its little dwelling. When ready 
to change into the winged form, it swims to 
the top of the water, and bursts out of its pupa 
skin so quickly that it seems almost to fly 
out of the water. If you should see it at this 
time, you would believe it to be a perfect May- 
Fly, but it is really still covered with a very thin 
and delicate skin, so it flies to the shore and alights 
upon a plant or tree, and casts off this skin, and 
after this the wings are much brighter and the 
tails are longer. The May-Fly lays its eggs in 
the water, in little balls or clusters, each cluster 
containing several hundred eggs. These clusters, 
being heavier than the water, sink to the bottom 
of the river, or pond, and the eggs soon separate, 
and when the young ones hatch, they make the 
little homes that I have told you about. 

May-Flies are sometimes seen in such immense 



110 PICTUKES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

swarms that they darken the sky, the air being 
filled with them as you see it in winter filled with 
snow-flakes ; and at such times they fall dead 
upon the ground in such numbers that the people 
collect their dead bodies in heaps to enrich the 
land. 




The Stone-Fly, half-natural size. 

The Stone-Fly also lives in the water in its 
young state, but after it gets its wings it lives 
much longer than the May-Fly. It lays its eggs 
on the rushes by the river-side. 

Every pleasant day in summer you may see 
the Dragon-Fly skimming over the pools, ponds, 
and fields, its beautiful gauze-like wings glistening 
like gold in the sunshine. It is catching and eat- 



THE DRAGON-FLY. Ill 

ing mosquitoes and flies, and other insects upon 
which it feeds. Sometimes it flies into our rooms, 
and some little girls and boys are afraid of it, 
thinking it may sting them, but you need not 
be afraid of it, for it has no sting. This insect 
is often called a Darning-Needle, and you may 




The Dragon-Fly. 

have been told that it can sew your skin, but this 
is not true ; it cannot harm you in any way. 
There are many kinds of Dragon-Flies, and their 
colors are often very beautiful. When young, they 
all live in pools, ponds, and ditches, and have 
long sprawling legs, and crawl about upon the mud 
at the bottom, and among the water-plants. They 



112 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

are very hungry creatures, and eat other water 
insects, tadpoles, and little fishes. When the time 
comes for them to leave the water, they crawl up 
the stems of plants, the skin splits open on the 
back, and the perfect Dragon-Fly comes forth, and, 
after drying itself in the sunshine, darts swiftly 
away. 

The Horned Corydalis looks like a large Dragon- 
Fly with long horns. It also lives in the water 





The Larva. The Horned Corydalis. 

in its young state. Here is a picture which shows 
you how it looks when it is living in the water, and 



THE ANT-LION. 



113 



another which shows you how it looks when in 
the winged form. 

The Ant-Lion has such thin delicate wings that 
it is often called the Lace -Wing. It is called 
the Ant-Lion, because in its young state it feeds 
upon ants and other insects; and it has a very 
odd way of catching the little creatures which 
it eats. It does not run after them, because it is 
so formed that it can move about only very slowly ; 
so in order to get its prey it digs a pit in the sand, 





The Young Ant-Lion and its Pit or Trap. 



as you see it in this picture, and then hides 
itself at the bottom of it, leaving only its jaws 
exposed. When an ant or any other small insect 
comes near the edge of the pit, the loose earth gives 
way under its feet, and it falls into the pit; the 
young Ant-Lion at once seizes it and eats it, 

VOL. IV. 8 



114 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

and then hides again and waits for another in- 
sect to fall in. But perhaps I ought to tell you 
that the Ant-Lion does not eat the whole of these 
little insects ; it only sucks their juices, and 
then casts the dry skin out of its pitfall. When 
the young Ant-Lion is ready to go into the pupa 




The Ant-Lion. 

form, which is like the chrysalis form of the butter- 
fly, it buries itself in the sand, and makes a little 
case out of the grains of sand, glueing them to- 
gether by means of a sticky fluid which comes 
from its own body; and the inside is lined with 
fine and beautiful silken threads. It is said to 
stay in this little case for about two months, and 
then comes forth with its lace-like wings, and looks 
as you see it in the picture. It lays its eggs in 
the sand. 



THE CADDICE-FLY. 115 

On the bottom of nearly every pool and brook 
you may find, at almost any time when you will 
take the trouble to look for them, little cases made 
of bits of broken shells, or of coarse sand, or of 
grass, twigs, or pieces of bark ; you will see these 
little cases moving about, and if you look closely 
at one of them you will see, at one end, a little 
head and six legs. The little animals which make 
these cases and live in them are young Caddice- 




The Caddice-Fly. 

Flies. The case is open at both ends, and it is softly 
lined with silk, and the pieces of which it is made 
are held together by threads of silk. The little 
insect within is quite secure from harm, and crawls 
slowly about and feeds mainly upon the plants 
that grow in the water. When it has grown to 
its full size, it creeps up the stem of some plant, 
until the opening of its case is just even with 



116 



PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 



the top of the water, and then it spins a web of 
silk across the case and goes into the pupa form, 
and by and by comes out with wings, and looks 
as you see it in the picture. 

THE SPIDERS. 



I will now tell you about the Spiders. You 
do not like to see them so well as you like to 




The Spider. 

see the pretty bees, butterflies, and beetles ; but they 
are very curious creatures, and some of them have 
very beautiful colors. All of the insects whose 



THE SPIDERS. 117 

pictures I have shown you, and which I have 
told you about, have the body divided into three 
parts, — a head, a middle part, and a hind body ; 
and they have six legs, and either two or four 
wings. But the Spiders have the body divided 
into only two parts, — a head and the hind 
body ; and they have eight legs, and two large 
feelers that look like legs, and none of them 
have wings. There are many kinds of spiders, 
and all of them spin some sort of a web. You have 
often seen spider-webs in the barn, and shed, 
and on the bushes, and on the ground, and in 
the house. These webs are snares or traps to 
catch flies, and other insects which the spiders 
like to eat, and which it would be very difficult 
for them to get, because they have no wings, were 
it not for the webs that they spin. Sometimes 
the webs of the large spiders, in warm countries, 
are so strong that little birds, which happen to 
fly against them, get entangled in the meshes 
and cannot get away. 

The House Spider spins a net-like web in the 
corners of the rooms. A naturalist named Gold- 
smith has told of one which lived for three years 



118 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

in a corner of his room, and grew so tame 
that it would come and take a fly from his 
hand. A story is told of a House-Spider which 
lived in a room where there was a piano, and 
whenever any ofle played upon the piano he 
would come 'out of his retreat, and let himself 
down by spinning a silken thread, and hang over 
the piano until the music ceased, when he would 
go back again. 

The Geometer Spider makes a web among the 
bushes in the garden, or in an open window in 
the barn or shed. It is made in the most beauti- 
ful manner, the lines running from the centre, 
like the spokes in a wagon-wheel, and these are 
joined by a line which at first sight seems to be 
arranged in circles, but which is really only one 
line which the spider starts at the centre and 
carries round and round to the outside. 

The Mason or Trap-Door Spider builds its nest 
in the ground. It first digs a deep pit, some- 
times one or two feet long, which it lines all around 
with silk, making a warm and comfortable home, 
and then it begins to build the door, — the most 
curious part of this little dwelling. The spider 



THE SPIDERS. 119 

spins a little web which is just as large as the 
mouth of the hole, but joined to it only at one 
point on the upper side ; then it covers this web 
with soil, and then spins another layer of silk, 
and covers this with soil ; and it keeps doing this 
until the door is made thick and strong enough. 
The outside layer is of soil, so the little home of 
the spider is not easy to find. The point where 
the door is joined to the ground serves as a hinge 
and the door opens outward by the pressure of 
the spider against it, and shuts by its own weight. 
If any one tries to open this door, the spider runs 
to it, and fixes some of its little claws in the silk 
which lines it, and others in the silk which lines 
its home, and pulls with all its might to keep the 
door closed. 

Some kinds of spiders have a silken den near 
their web, or in one part of it, in which they 
stay most of the time. They spin lines from 
this den to different parts of the web, and when 
a fly or any other little insect gets entangled 
in the web, they know it by the quivering of these 
lines, and dart out and run to the little creature 
and bite it, poisoning it so that it soon dies. If 



120 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

the insect be very large and strong, the spider 
waits till the insect gets more entangled, and at 
last, tired out by its efforts to get away ; then it 
binds it with its siken threads, and begins to eat 
it up. The bite of a common spider is so poisonous 
that it kills a fly ; the bite of some kinds which 
live in South America kills little birds; and men 
are sometimes killed by a spider's bite. Spiders 
lay eggs and enclose them in silken sacs. Some 
kinds carry this egg-sac about with them; others 
spin it in a safe place, and stay near to watch it 
till the young are hatched, and to tear it open 
so that the young may crawl out. Perhaps you 
have seen some of the little egg-sacs; they are 
often made of the whitest, finest, and most beauti- 
ful silk, and some of them are very curious in their 




A Spider's Nest. 

form. Here is the picture of one which was found 
upon a grape-vine. It looks like a vase, and it 



THE SPIDERS. 121 

was bound to the vine by many fine silken threads, 
as you can see by looking at the picture. 

Spiders do not spin their silk in the same way 
that caterpillars do ; but they have in the hind 
part of th«e body a very curious organ, called the 
spinneret, by which the delicate threads of the 
spider-web are spun. This organ is made of four 
or six knobs, and in each knob there are a thou- 
sand holes, and through these holes the minute 
silken threads pass out, more than four thousand 
at a time ; and at a little distance from the knobs 
all these minute threads unite into one, forming 
the thread which you have often seen. The silk 
comes from a sticky fluid contained in bags in the 
hind body ; and when the threads first come out 
of the knobs they are soft, but they harden into 
silk as soon as the air touches them. 

The length of the line which a spider spins is 
sometimes very great. Dr. Wilder, of Boston, 
wound in a few hours, from a curious spider which 
he found in South Carolina, a line of the most 
beautiful silk, nearly two miles long ! 

The spider-web has other uses besides that of 
catching flies and other insects for its owner. 



122 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

The men and the women who study the stars, 
and look through the telescope every clear night, 
have spiders' lines stretched across each other 
in the telescope, so as to guide their eyes, in a 
way which you can understand when .you are a 
little older. Silk garments have been made from 
the spider's silk; and Dr. Wilder believes that 
the curious spider which he found in South Caro- 
lina will some time be kept and tended in large 
numbers, and that we shall get silk for ribbons and 
for dresses from it, as we now do from the silk- 
worm which I have told you about on another page. 
Scorpions are spider-like animals which have a 
long body ending in a curved sharp sting. It is 
very dangerous to handle, or even to touch them, for 
their sting is very poisonous, often causing death. 
They live only in warm countries. The one whose 
picture is on the next page lives in Texas. Scorpi- 
ons lurk under stones, and under rubbish, and in 
caves, or other damp and dark places, and some- * 
times they are found in houses. They run very fast, 
bending the long hind body in every direction, 
and striking this way and that, so as to wound 
whatever touches them. With their sting they 



THE SCORPION. 123 

kill locusts, beetles, and other insects, which they 
catch by means of their pincers. The Scorpion 
carries her young ones upon her back (luring 




The Scorpion. 

the first few days of their life, and watches over 
them and cares for them until they are able to 
take care of themselves. Scorpions will not bear 
imprisonment; if one is shut up in a box, or a 
glass vessel, as soon as it finds that it cannot get 
away, it stings itself to death. 



124 PICTUKES AND STOKIES OF ANIMALS. 



THE CENTIPEDES. 



Here is a picture of a small animal which you 
will often find under rubbish, and under the stones 




The Lithobius. 

in the garden. It is called a Centipede, a word 
which means hundred feet. It is sometimes called 
an earwig, but that is not its right name. A true 
earwig has large and very beautiful wings ; this 
little creature has no wings, but it has so many 
pairs of feet that it can run very fast. In hot 
countries centipedes grow to be very large, and 
their bite is more dangerous than the sting of 



THE GALLEY-WORM. 125 

the scorpion. They creep into houses and hide 
under furniture, and in drawers and closets, and 
sometimes they are found even in beds. They feed 
upon insects and worms. 

Here is a picture of a little animal which you 
may sometimes see crawling slowly along upon 




The Galley- Worm. 

the ground, but which you find oftener under 
stones and moss, and under the bark and in the 
wood of old decaying trees. This one is called 
a Millepede, a word which means thousand feet. 
It may also be called the Galley- Worm. If you 
touch one of these little animals, it quickly coils 
itself so that it looks like a little snail-shell. It 
feeds upon decaying wood, roots, and leaves, and 
it lays its eggs in the ground, or in the dust of 
old dead wood. When the young are first hatched 
they have no legs, but in a few days they throw 
off their first skin, and then appear with three 
pairs of legs. In a few days more they change their 



126 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

skin again, and then they have seven pairs of 
legs ; and this they keep on doing until they get 
their full number of legs. 



THE CRABS, LOBSTERS, AND SHRIMPS. 

Crabs are queer-looking animals which you find 
among the rocks and under the sea-weeds, when 
you go to the sea-shore in the summer. They 
are covered by a shell, have ten legs, and, what 




A Crab. 

is very curious, they can walk backward and 
sidewise as well as forward. Two of their feet 
end in claws, which they use to pick up their 
food, and to crush it, and they bite so severely 
with these claws, that if one should get hold of 
your hand you could not easily get it away. 



THE CRABS. 127 

There are a great many kinds of these animals. 
Some of them are no larger than a penny ; 
others are as large as your hand ; others are as 
large as a saucer ; and others are larger than 
the plate from which you eat your dinner. Some 
kinds live on the sands and among the rocks 
far down in the sea ; others live in the shallow 
waters near the shore ; others live on the rocky 
and sandy beaches, where the waves may dash 
over them ; others live on the shore in burrows ; 
and others live all the time upon the land, far 
from the sea, upon hills and mountains, going 
to the sea only to lay their eggs. Those that live 
on the land are the Land Crabs, and they are 
found only in warm countries. They live in holes 
which they dig in the ground, and often in the 
hollow stumps of trees, and in the clefts of the 
rocks. In the spring they come out of their holes, 
and get together in large troops, and march in 
a straight line for the sea. They travel mostly in 
the night, and it is said that nothing but large 
rivers can turn them from their path, and that 
they march over houses, and scale rocks, and often 
injure and destroy whole plantations as they pass 
along. 



128 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

Many people like crabs for food. The one shown 
in the picture — the Soft-shelled Crab — is caught 
in great numbers on our coast, and sold in the 
markets of New York, and Philadelphia, and other 




The Soft-shelled Crab. 

cities. This kind, as well as others, can live 
for several days out of water, if kept in a moist 
place. The one whose picture you see here was 
carried from New York to Boston, in a box con- 
taining damp grass, and the little fellow was alive 
and well at the end of his journey. 



THE CRABS. 129 

Tho Fiddler Crab is very small, and it gets its 
name from the form of one of its claws, which 
is much larger than the other, and shaped some- 
what like the bow of a fiddle. These crabs live 
in burrows on the sea-shore, and they close the 




The Fiddler Crab, 

opening to their burrow by means of their large 
claw. They have a habit of flourishing this claw, 
as if they were beckoning to some one far off, 
and so they are sometimes called the Calling 
Crabs. They stay in their burrows all winter. 

But perhaps the most curious of all the crabs 
is the one which is called the Hermit Crab. It 
gets this name from its habit of living by itself, 
and the singular manner in which it obtains a 
home. You will like to know .why and how it 
does this. Its long hind body, instead of being 
covered by a hard shell, is soft like leather, and 



130 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

so it would easily be injured if the little animal 
did not find some protection or shelter for it. 
But this is just what he does ; he crawls about on 
the shore, where the- shells are thrown by the waves, 
or left by the tide, seeking for an empty shell 
which may serve him as a dwelling-place ; and 
when he finds one of the right size, he inserts his 
tail, and retreats into the shell, and thus secures 
a safe abode. At the end of the tail there is a 
little organ, a sort of sucker, by which the crab 
is able to attach itself firmly to the shell, which 
it now carries about * wherever it goes. When 
walking or eating, the head and legs extend be- 
yond the shell, but when alarmed the crab with- 
draws into the shell, and closes the opening with 
its large claw ; for one of its claws is much larger 
than the other. When the Hermit Crab has grown 
somewhat larger, it is obliged to change its abode, 
so it crawls along the beach searching for a larger 
shell, and it is very amusing to watch him in his 
search. He tries. first one shell and then another, 
until at last he finds one which suits him. 
Another name for this animal is Soldier Crab; 
for sometimes, when it cannot find an empty dead 



THE LOBSTER. 



131 



shell which suits it for a home, it will attack a 

living one, and fight until it gets possession of it. 

The Lobsters are curious animals which live 

in the sea. They have a large and 16ng hind 




The Lobster. 

body, which is almost always turned forward, as 
you see it in the picture. Two of their legs are 
very large, and end in strong claws or pincers, and 
one of these claws has blunt rounded teeth suited 
for crushing shells, and the other has very sharp 
teeth suited for biting. These claws are so power- 
ful that a lobster can easily bite off a man's finger 



132 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

with them ; and if one of them were to get hold 
of your hand, you could not get it away, without 
breaking off the lobster's claw. The fishermen, or 
men who catch lobsters, know well their biting 
habits, and when they catch a lobster they put 
a wooden plug into the joints of its pincers, so 
that it cannot open them. If this were not done, 
the lobsters might not only bite the fishermen, 
but they would bite off the legs and claws of one 
another when confined in the lobster-car, — a large 
box in the water in which lobsters are kept alive 
after they are caught, until they are sent to the 
market. Lobsters are caught mainly in wooden 
traps, which are baited with fish. On one side 
is a door which opens easily into the trap, but 
which does not swing outward ; so when the lobster 
is once in, he cannot get out again. 

In crawling about over the rocks, and on the 
bottom of the sea, the lobster moves rather slowly, 
but sometimes, by a single stroke of its powerful 
tail, or hind body, it darts backward in the water 
many feet, with the swiftness of an arrow. 

When a lobster, or a crab, or any other crus- 
tacean, as these animals are called, because of the 



THE LOBSTER. 133 

crust or shell with which they are furnished, 
loses a leg, or a feeler, or any other organ, even 
an eye, another like it grows to supply its place. 
You may have seen in the market lobsters with 
one claw much smaller than the other ; the small 
one is a newer or younger claw, and has grown 
in the place of one which has been lost. Lobsters 
have the power of throwing off their claws, and 
it is said that the firing of a gun over one which 
was freshly caught caused it, in its terror, to 
throw off both its claws. 

But one of the most interesting and wonderful 
facts about lobsters, and other crustaceans is, 
that from time to time, until they get their full 
growth, they shed the shell in one piece, so that 
the cast-off shell looks exactly like the perfect 
animal ; feelers, eyes, jaws, legs, and even every 
hair, are all just as they were when they covered 
the live lobster ! The lobster comes out of his 
shell through a rent on the back, and at first he 
is very soft ; he grows rapidly, and in a few days 
his skin is as hard as the shell which he cast off. 
It is in this way that the lobsters and other crus- 
taceans grow; for while the shell remains, the 



134 PICTUEES AND STOKIES OF ANIMALS. 

animal can only grow just large enough to fill it. 
When a lobster is ready to shed its shell, there 
are two hard, stone-like bodies at the sides of the 
stomach; and it is supposed that these furnish 
a part of the solid matter for the new shell, for 
after the shedding they begin to grow smaller, 
and soon disappear entirely. 

The little Craw-Fish, or Fresh-Water Lobster, 
lives in brooks, streams, and springs. One kind 
lives on the Western prairies and in the Southern 
States, in holes which it digs in the ground deep 
enough to find water. Those that live in our 
brooks hide in burrows and under stones on the 
banks, and come out to feed upon small fishes 
and little mollusks. The Craw-Fish is about three 
inches long. 

Lobsters and Craw-Fishes, or Cray-Fishes, for 
they are called by both names, carry their eggs 
under the hind body or tail, and the young ones 
also nestle there for shelter and protection. 

On the next page there is a picture of the Shrimp, 
whose home is in the sea. This little animal 
is only about two inches long; its body is half 
transparent, and of a green color, like the ocean, 



THE SAND-HOPPERS. » 135 

so that it is not easy to see it in the water. It is 
also said to burrow in the sand, leaving only its 
eyes exposed, and in this way it often watches 




for its prey. There are many kinds of shrimps, 
some of them four or five inches in length, or 
more. Many fishes and water-birds feed upon 
shrimps, and large numbers of them are also 
caught in nets for food. 



THE SAND-HOPPERS AND TRILOBITES. 

If you have ever been upon the sea-beach in 
summer-time, you have seen the little animals 
called Sand-Hoppers. These little creatures bur- 
row in the sand and seldom enter the water. They 
feed upon the small animals which are thrown upon 



136 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

the beach by the tide and the waves, and they 
like to eat the worms which live in the sand along 




The Sand- Hopper. 

the shore, and they often attack those that are ten 
or twenty times their own size. 

A great many thousand years ago, when the 
ocean was much larger than it is now, and when 
it covered the place where we now live, and nearly 
all the places which you ever saw, very many 
kinds of animals lived in the waters unlike any 
that are living now. Many of these animals be- 
came buried in the sand and mud at the bottoin 
of the sea, and when the sea bottoms were lifted 
up out of the water so as to become dry, the 
sand and mud were hardened into rocks, and when 
we break open these rocks we find some of the 
animals that lived and died so long ago. Some 
kinds of these animals are star-shaped ; some kinds 



THE TRILOBITE. 137 

look like the shells which you find on the sea- 
shore now ; and others look like worms ; and 
others look like the picture which you see here ; 
and some are fishes. The Trilobite is one of these 




The Trilobite. 

old animals, and it is found in the rocks in many 
places in this country and in other countries. 
It is named from its three lobes or divisions. 
Some of the Trilobites were no larger than a penny, 
others were almost twice as long as this book. 
They lived near or on the bottom of the old oceans, 
and they looked a little like the Horse-Shoe Crabs 
which are very common on the sea-coasts now. 
When you go to Trenton Falls in New York, you 



138 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

may get some one to break open the black limestone 
rocks which you will see there, and you will find 
a Trilobite in them. 



THE BARNACLES AND HORSE-SHOE CRAB. 

Among the many curious and beautiful objects 
which will interest you, when you visit the sea- 
shore in summer, are the little acorn-shaped shells 
which cover the rocks and stones in every spot 
where the waves and spray can dash over them. 
These are the Acorn-Barnacles, and here is a 
picture of one of them, as it looks 
g^ when it is out of the water. But 
if you should take a stone, covered 
with these little shells, fresh from 

The Acorn-Bar- ^he sea ? an( * P ut ** * n a ^ a ^ n <>f 

nacle - sea -water, and watch the shells 

closely, you would see them begin to open, and 
very soon beautiful feather-like feelers would be 
thrust out, and then withdrawn, then thrust out 
again, and again withdrawn ; and the little creatures 
would keep doing this so regularly and so grace- 




THE BARNACLE. 139 

fully, that you would be quite delighted with watch- 
ing them. You will like to know why they do 
this ; they are trying to find something which 
they will like to eat, — very minute animals, and 
the little particles of food that may be floating 
about in the water. They have no eyes, and so 
cannot see to pick up anything, but these soft, 
delicate, feathery feelers are very sensitive, and 
when they touch a particle of food, or a little 
animal, it is quickly drawn to the mouth and eaten. 
And more than this, the opening and shutting 
of these little shells, and the waving and grasping 
of these tiny arms, cause little currents and whirl- 
pools in the water, and these little currents and 
whirlpools bring many little floating particles of 
food within the reach of the Acorn-Barnacles, and 
thus they are able to get plenty to eat, although 
they cannot move about from place to place. But 
the strangest part of their history is yet to be 
told ; for these little creatures have not always 
been fixed to the rocks and stones where we now 
see them, nor have they always been without eyes. 
When young they were of quite a different form, 
and they had large eyes, and several pairs of swim- 



140 



PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 



ming legs, and they swam and leaped about in 
the water, until at last they shed their shell, and 
became fixed to a rock or a stone, or some other 
object in the water, and then their eyes began to 
disappear, their arms to grow, and they changed 
gradually into the little acorn-shaped animals that I 
have told you about. 

Other kinds of barnacles grow in clusters, and 
are attached by stems to floating wood, to the 




The Goose Barnacle. 



bottom of ships, to the timbers of wharves, and 
also to shells, turtles, fishes, whales, and other 
sea animals. These stemmed barnacles, when 



THE BARNACLES AND HORSE-SHOE CRAB. 141 

young, also floated and swam about in the water, 
like the young Acorn-Barnacles, The resemblance 
of the beautiful feather-like arms of barnacles to 
the feathers of birds, caused the people who lived 
many years ago to believe that these animals were 
the young of the barnacle geese, and that at last 
they came forth from their shells as real birds ! 

You will scarcely believe that barnacles can have 
any power over, or in any way influence, the motion 
of a large ship ; but, in long voyages, they some- 
times so completely cover the bottom of a ship, that 
they greatly hinder its progress through the water. 

On the next page is a picture of a queer-looking 
animal that is often seen upon the sea-shore. It is 
called the Horse-shoe Crab, because its broad, thin 
shell is shaped somewhat like the hoof of a horse. 
The body ends fn a long hard spine, and the point 
of the spine is very sharp. The savages on the 
islands of the sea use these spines for spear-heads 
and arrow-points. The Horse-shoe Crab has sev- 
eral pairs of organs fitted for swimming about in 
the water, and several other pairs fitted for crawl- 
ing on the shore ; the crawling legs are situated 
around the mouth of this queer creature, and 



142 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

serve as its jaws also, and at the upper part they 
are furnished with teeth and spines for biting and 




The Horse-shoe Crab. 

crushing the food ; so that the Horse-shoe Crab 
walks and eats with the same organs ! This crab 
cannot bear the heat of the sun, and it is said 
that when left by the waves upon the shore, where 
it cannot easily crawl into the water, it will bury 
itself in the sand for a shelter. 



THE WORMS. 143 

THE WORMS. 

The last story in this book is about the Worms. 
But perhaps you are thinking that they are ugly 
looking little things, and good for nothing except 
fish-baits, and that you do not care to read 
about them. If you have been thinking so, then 
I must tell you first that the worms are interest- 
ing and very useful animals, and some of them 
are as beautiful as the most beautiful flowers that 
grow in your little garden. 

Some kinds of worms live in the ground ; other 
kinds live in the mud at the bottom of ponds 
and rivers ; but the greatest numbers live in the 
sea, and these are the most wonderful and the 
most beautiful of all. 




The Earth- Worm. 



Of those that live in the ground, the most 
common is the Earth-Worm, which every child 
has often seen, and which men and boys often 



144 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

use for bait when they fish for the beautiful 
speckled trout. The Earth- Worm, in some cases, 
is made up of more than a hundred rings, and 
it has neither eyes, nor feelers, nor feet, but it 
has, on each ring of its body, four pairs of bristles 
or spines, which stand backward, and these aid 
it in making its way through the ground, which 
it pierces in every direction. In this way the 
Earth-Worms work over the soil, and make it 
looser, lighter, and more fertile, and thus they 
are of great benefit to the farmer and gardener. 
The Earth-Worms are very useful in another way, 
for they are the food of many kinds of animals. 
The little moles that live in the ground eat them ; 
the woodcock and many other kinds of birds 
feed upon them ; the frogs and toads, and even 
the fishes, are glad to get Earth-Worms to eat. 

The Leeches, or Bloodsuckers, are worms which 
live in ponds and streams, and also in the sea, 
and there are very many kinds of them. They 
are very hungry creatures, and they feed upon 
other animals. They attach themselves to frogs, 
fishes, snails, and worms, and suck out their blood 
and soft parts, and they sometimes devour one 



THE WORMS. 145 

another. When the cold weather comes, they 
bury themselves in the mud at the bottom of the 
ponds and streams, and sleep all winter, and in 
the spring crawl out and swim about again. 

The Hair- Worm, or Gordius, is another curious 
worm which lives in the water. It is about as 
large as a horsehair, and some people think that 
it is a hair from a horse's mane or tail, and that 
it has been changed to a worm by lying in the 
water! But I need not tell you that hairs never 
change into worms. When the Hair- Worm is 
young, it lives in the body of an insect, sometimes 
that of the water-beetle, and when grown, it leaves 
the body of the insect, and escapes into the water. 
It lays its eggs in long chains, in the water, or 
in some moist place ; and when the young ones 
are hatched they eat their way into the body of 
some insect, and there they live until they get 
their growth and are ready to come forth into the 
water, where you see them. 

But it is in the sea that we find those wonder- 
fully beautiful worms, whose colors are as brilliant, 
and whose hues are as varied, as the many-tinted 
flowers of the garden. Unlike the worms that I 

VOL. IV. 10 



146 PICTURES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

have been telling you about, which have no breath- 
ing organs that we can see, these splendid creatures 
have breathing organs of the most elegant forms, 
and of* the richest colors. But I must first tell 
you that while some of the sea-worms are free, 
and move about from place to place, burrowing 
in the sand at the bottom of the ocean, or swim- 
ming about in the water, other sea-worms cannot 
move about at all, for they live either in beauti- 
ful shelly tubes, that are formed around them as 
they grow, or in tubes which they build of sand, 
little stones, and shells, and other materials which 
they find in the sea, — the fragments of which 
these tubes are built being fastened together with 
a sticky substance which comes from the body 
of the worm. 

The sea-worms that are free have their breath- 
ing organs, or gills, arranged along the sides of 
the body, in the form of delicate fringes, or in 
tufts which look like miniature trees ; while those 
sea-worms that live in tubes have their breathing 
organs arranged around the head and neck in the 
form of collars, plumes, and crests. 

Of those sea-worms that move about freely in 



THE WORMS. 147 

the water, one of the most beautiful is called the 
Sea-Mouse, because it is clothed with silky hairs. 
These hairs have the shining lustre of gold, silver, 
and other metals, and they reflect all the hues 
of the rainbow, — red, orange, yellow, green, blue, 
indigo, and violet; and the feathers upon the 
breast of a humming-bird, or the wing-covers of 
the most brilliant beetles, are not more splendid 
than the colors of this little worm of the sea. 

Some of the tube-building worms make their 
little homes of sand ; these live on the shores and 
beaches of the sea, where the tide can flow over 
and cover them ; and when the water covers them 
they present a most beautiful appearance, for out 
of the opening of each little tube there comes a 
little head and neck ; the neck is adorned with 
rings of golden hair, and around the head are 
feathery, plume-like tufts of beautiful colors, and 
the whole looks like a bed of bright flowers. 

You may sometimes see upon the sea-shore, 
when the tide is out, beautiful tubes made of 
shining pearly bits of broken shells, and grains 
of sand, little pebbles of different colors, with 
here and there small whole shells. Each one of 



148 PICTUEES AND STORIES OF ANIMALS. 

these little tubes has been the home of a sea- 
worm named the Terebella. These worms have 
around the head long delicate feelers, which 
stretch out far and wide, and adhere to the little 
specks of sand and bits of shell; these they 
bring together, piece by piece, and arrange them 
in the form of a circular wall, fastening them 
together with the gluey secretion which comes 
from their body. These sea-worms are often 
kept in Aquaria, and it is very interesting and 
pleasant to watch them while they are building 
their curious and pretty homes. Some kinds of 
Terebellse live together in groups, and the clusters 
of tubes which they form are sometimes quite 
large. 

The sea-worms called Serpulae live in white 
shelly tubes which are formed around them as 
they grow. They are almost always found in 
clusters which are attached to the surface of a 
stone, or a shell, or to any object that has been 
a long time in the sea ; sometimes they are 
attached along their whole length, at other times 
they are attached only for a part of their length. 
The tubes are often coiled and twisted, and it 



THE WORMS. 149 

is from this coiling and twisting that they get 
the name of Serpulae, a word which means to 
twist about like serpents. One end of the tube 
tapers to a point, and is closed ; the other end is 




The Serpula. 

open, and from this the head, with its beautiful 
crest-like cluster of gills, comes forth. The col- 
ors of these clusters of gills are of the brightest 
scarlet and crimson, owing to the blood which 
is all the time flowing through them ; and these 
little sea-worms, when expanded, are as beautiful 
as the most brilliant carnations when in full 
blossom. 

The tube of the Serpula is often much longer 



150 PICTURES AND STOEIES OF ANIMALS. 

than the worm itself, and it serves as a safe retreat 
for the little creature ; for when danger is near, 
the Serpula quickly draws in its head, and the 
opening to the tube is beautifully closed by a 
little organ called the " stopper." You can see 
this little organ in the picture of the Serpula; 
it is one of the harder portions of the worm, and 
it is often found in the shelly tube long after the 
soft parts of the animal have disappeared. Al- 
though the Serpula darts so quickly into his tube 
that you can scarcely follow his movements with 
the eye, he is very slow in coming out again, ex- 
panding his tufts or gills in the most cautious 
manner. 

The sea-worms are beautiful objects for the 
Aquarium, and there we can study them and 
learn their structure and habits ; and the more 
we watch them and study them, the more we 
shall see in them to excite our interest and our 
wonder; and thus we shall learn that the hum- 
blest creatures that God has made are full of 
beauty, and full of interest, and full of instruc- 
tion. 

THE END. 



